Psychological Brain Archives

Proof that Dissociation can be seen in the Human Brain!

The University of Washington medical school does not believe in dissociation and will not teach its psychiatrists about it. Schools that teach only cognitive behavioral therapies do not mention dissociation. It's great to see this research that shows proof that it actually exists. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-neuroimaging-dissociative-symptoms-reveals-wounds.html Novel neuroimaging study on dissociative symptoms reveals wounds of childhood trauma

By Doug Plummer|2022-09-26T20:23:53-07:00September 26th, 2022|Comments Off

Living with the Awareness of Evil

I've had to confront evil again. In my every day life, I see it all the time. 60% of my clients have been sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by the adults, mostly their parents, who were in charge of them. As a consultant I hear therapists' most horrific cases. I read the newspapers.This political election

By Robin Shapiro|2010-10-24T09:18:10-07:00October 24th, 2010|9 Comments

New Theory Links Chronic Brain Inflammation to Depression

The more stress and depression, the more inflammation. University of California, San Diego, medical school report from Newswise: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/569853/

By Robin Shapiro|2010-10-24T08:17:32-07:00October 24th, 2010|Comments Off

Therapeutic Metaphors from Star Trek and other Popular Culture

Utilization is the idea that therapists should use the culture and the language that their clients already use. If your client has watched Star Trek, they already know how to utilize these great tools. Safe place: "Do you know what a containment field is on Star Trek? Great! So imagine your safe place has a

By Robin Shapiro|2010-08-28T14:23:46-07:00August 28th, 2010|1 Comment

UCLA Trauma Conference Synthesis

I escaped the conference yesterday, and am typing in the dark this morning beside my snoring husband. I can’t see my notes, so let me tell you my impression of the conference: Trauma impacts the right hemisphere of the brain. Helpful trauma therapy targets the right brain. Left brain cognitions and interpretations don’t have much

By Robin Shapiro|2009-03-09T08:59:53-07:00March 9th, 2009|7 Comments

UCLA Trauma Conference Day 2: Dan Siegel, Mindfulness

Daniel Siegel: A System's View of Disintegration & Integration (He's still cute, he's still brilliant, he speaks in easy-to-remember aphorisms and he's still heartful. What's not to like?) "Integration is the linking of differentiated parts. The concept is useful for assessment, tx planning and therapy. . .Presence is absent in trauma survivors. Presence begins with

By Robin Shapiro|2009-03-08T22:21:23-07:00March 8th, 2009|1 Comment

UCLA 2009 Trauma Conference Day 1, van der Kolk & Shapiro

Day 1: Bessel van der Kolk is lovely. He's humble, he's funny, and he is the premiere researcher on the neurobiology and/or efficacy of trauma treatments in the world. And cute and brilliant, of course. Here are nearly random gems from 3 hours of notes: With trauma, there are no stories, only sensory experience: images,

By Robin Shapiro|2009-03-06T22:35:54-08:00March 6th, 2009|2 Comments

WALL-E, a Story of Attachment

WALL-E, the new Pixar movie, is the perfect anthropomorphic attachment story. It's also a great movie and funny as hell. The first half, and most of the rest is an amost silent movie. Our hero, is a trash compactor robot who lives with an indestructible and graceful cockroach for company. He watches "Hello Dolly" video

By Robin Shapiro|2008-07-04T17:18:53-07:00July 4th, 2008|2 Comments

MYSHRINK.COM

myshrink.com is a fantastic website/blog full of information about therapy, bodymind connection, anxiety, and depression. It has some of the most cogent explainations I've seen. It's a great resource for clients as well as therapists. It's written and overseen by Suzanne LaCombe, a therapist in Vancouver, BC. She writes clearly, has a sense of humor,

By Robin Shapiro|2007-11-14T07:32:48-08:00November 14th, 2007|Comments Off

The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy

The book group discussed The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Louis Cozolino (W.W. Norton & Co. 2002). We liked it. Cozolino's book is easy to understand and moves along nicely. It is packed with information about the brain. Its case examples were great, though too few. Cozolino writes about brain structures--the triune brain (lizard, mammalian, human),

By Robin Shapiro|2007-11-09T21:04:29-08:00November 9th, 2007|2 Comments

Reading Group: The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Cozolino

The next book in the reading group will be The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, by Louis Cozolino (W.W. Norton, 2003). It's easier to read than you might think, and written by a psychologist, not a medical person, who struggled through the medical/scientific texts in order to bring we clinicians the good news. According to Cozolino, we

By Robin Shapiro|2007-10-23T18:19:41-07:00October 23rd, 2007|Comments Off

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

We all know what Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) looks like: repetitive rituals, obsessive thoughts, and the people who are thinking or doing the compulsive thinking or behavior and know that they're not being rational. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Order (OCPD) is something else. People with OCPD are detail oriented, to the exclusion of the big picture. They are

By Robin Shapiro|2007-09-03T16:37:02-07:00September 3rd, 2007|6 Comments

NYT’s Article on Unconscious Cues

Here is a great article about effect of unconscious cues on behavior. We don't consciously run our lives as much as we think. Thanks to Kathy Downing on the ERC-List for finding it. http://tinyurl.com/yrpu7c

By Robin Shapiro|2007-08-06T20:06:57-07:00August 6th, 2007|Comments Off