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Neuroplasticity: The Biology of Psychotherapy
Click here for Neuroplasticity: The Biology of Psychotherapy (52 pages of text)
Outline
I: OLD PARADIGM : BIOLOGY SEPARATE FROM LEARNING
a. Treat brain impairments with chemical interventions b. Treat learned behavior pathologies with “psychotherapy”
II: OLD PARADIGM: BRAIN IMPAIRMENTS HYPOTHETICAL
a. Benefits assessed exclusively with behavioral measures- DSM b. Biological improvement inferred from behavior symptom reductions c. Actual biological damage as with tardive dyskinesia labeled side effects
III: NEW PARADIGM: LEARNING PRODUCES DURABLE BRAIN CHANGES a. Psychotherapy Produces Observable Brain Changes b . Neuroplastic Changes Include Neuronal Firing & Wiring Changes c. Levels of Metabolic Activity Linked to Symptomatic Behavior d. Psychotherapy Can Normalize Metabolic Levels e. Effective Psychotherapy Yields Durable Learning f. Recent Imagery Tools Reveal Details of the Working Brain g. Learning Can Create New Neurons Throughout Life h. Deliberate Thinking & Behavior Can Effect Changes in the Brain
IV: NEUROSCIENCE FINDINGS AND WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW THEM
a. Principles Guiding How The Brain Learns – Predictable Change b. Roles of Specific Emotional Structures – e.g. Amygdala c. Cortical Structures Designed For Rational, Empirical Learning d. Mental Acts of Conscious, Deliberate Decisions Affect Brain Biology e. A Brain Systems In Which Overactive Metabolic Activity Produces A Kind of “Brain Lock” f. Brain Is Designed As A Command/Control System Capable of Learning (Neuroplasticity)
V: PSYCHOTHERAPY INTERVENTIONS COMPATIBLE WITH BRAIN'S DESIGN FOR ADAPTIVE LEARNING
a. Research project at UCLA develops treatment model for OCD-treatment including prescribing deliberate cognitive steps, mindfulness meditation training and behavioral commitments to effect desired brain changes and durable remissions of symptomatic behavior, thinking and emotions. b. Other Examples of Brain Compatible Therapy Interventions
VI: SUMMARY:
a. All Psychotherapy Benefits Involve Neuroplastic Changes b. All Psychotherapy Involves Teaching/Learning Processes c. Intentional Learning as a Form of Self-Directed Neuroplasticity d. Will-Power Can Involve Fighting the Brain's Automated Impulses e. Fighting the Brain is a Self Defeating Contest f. Empower Your Clients By Guiding Them In Effective Use of Will Power g. The Brain Has Structures For Two Kinds of Learning 1. Cortical Structures for Empirical, Rational Learning 2. Non-Cognitive Autonomic Structures That Learn By Conditioning h. The Therapist as Teacher Instructs, Guides, Questions and Coaches i. Apply Principles of How The Brain Learns
Goal: Participants will to apply principles for effecting healthful, biological brain changes using deliberate practice with thinking and voluntary behavior that promote the brain’s neuroplasticity potentials.
Objectives: 1. Participants will be taught basic neuroscience discoveries of the working brain, to expand our understanding of mental health, mental illness, and how to improve health.
2. Participants will learn how learning creates durable, biological change in our brains.
3. Participants will learn how to teach clients voluntary behaviors and thinking that can calm the amygdala and interrupt or prevent “emotional hijacking”.
4. Participants will learn how to use a meditation practice to train the brain to respond to conscious, deliberate decision to direct attention.
Methods: Written text, applied psychotherapy research case, Post-test, Resource list.
Author: Herman Medow, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice for more than 39 years in the Cleveland, Ohio area. His professional work includes 13 years providing clinical services in a forensic unit of a state psychiatric hospital. This book is an expansion of a presentation at the 2006 Annual Psychology Conference in the State Psychiatric Hospital System.
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