Brain-Based Therapy & Practical Neuroscience: Attachment & Emotion Regulation

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

John B Arden, PhD Related seminars and products

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John Arden, PhD, served as Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Regional Director of Training where he developed one of the largest mental health training programs in the United States. In this capacity, he oversaw more than 150 interns and postdoctoral psychology residents in 24 medical centers. Prior to this, he served as Chief Psychologist for KP.
 

Dr. Arden believes that the evolution of psychotherapy in the 21st Century demands integration. Instead of choosing from the blizzard of modalities and schools of the past, therapists must move toward finding common denominators among them. Similarly, today’s psychotherapy necessitates the integration of the mind and body, not the past practice of compartmentalization of mental health and physical health. John’s study of neuropsychology has inspired him to integrate neuroscience and psychotherapy, synthesizing the biological and psychological into a new vision for psychotherapy: Brain-Based Therapy. His work incorporates what is currently known about the brain and its capacities, including neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, with psychotherapy research, mindfulness, nutritional neuroscience and social intelligence. He conducts seminars on Brain-Based Therapy throughout the United States and the world.
 

John is the author of 15 books including his newest book, Mind-Brain-Gene (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019). John is lead author along with Lloyd Linford of the books Brain-Based Therapy with Adults (Wiley, 2008) and Brain-Based Therapy with Children and Adolescents (Wiley, 2008). His first book, Consciousness, Dreams, and Self (Psychosocial Pr, 1996), was awarded the 1997 Outstanding Academic Book Award by Choice, a publication of the American Library Association. An international panel of jurists nominated his second book, Science, Theology, and Consciousness (Praeger, 1998), for the CTS award funded by the Templeton Foundation. His book America’s Meltdowns: Creating the Lowest Common Denominator Society (Praeger, 2003) explored the degradation of the fabric of American society.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: John Arden receives compensation as a national speaker. He receives royalties as a published author. He receives a speaking honorarium, book royalties, and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: John Arden has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Describe the role that attachment plays in the development of affect regulation and mood disorders.
2. Explain why the future of treatment necessitates a dynamic understanding of the brain and a shift away from the medical model.
3. Describe the relationship between diet and mental health.
4. Differentiate between implicit and explicit memory and their roles in therapy.
5. Describe how mindfulness meditation affects the brain and is used in the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression.
6. Explain how the fast and slow tracks to the amygdala play a role in anxiety disorders and therapy with people with anxiety disorders.

Outline

Psychotherapy in the 21st Century

• The integrative approach—no more need for the “schools” of psychotherapy
• Variables in successful treatment
• Outcomes management
• BASE (Brain, Alliance, System and Evidence-Based Practices)

What Neuroscience Offers to Therapy

• Emotion: laterality and lobes
• The role of attention and affect regulation: prefrontal lobes
• How to change the brain in successful therapy: neuroplasticity
• New neurons in the brain: neurogenesis
• The social brain, empathy and attachment

Developmental Neurobiology Brain Development

• Deprived vs. enriched environments
• Temperament and attachment in therapy
• Durability of attachment schema into adolescence and adulthood
• The development of the adolescent brain
• The aging brain

The Role of Memory

• The fundamental role of memory in therapy
• Implicit and explicit memory and how they can become dysregulated
• Hippocampus and amygdala dynamics
• Memory improvement techniques

The Stress Response System

• Historical models and the current view
• A balanced perspective of stress: allostasis
• When stress breaks down the system: allostatic load
• Adverse childhood experiences and how they affect adulthood

Working with the Neurodynamics of Anxiety Disorders: Taming the Amygdala

• GAD
• Panic
• OCD
• PTSD

Working with the Neurodynamics of Depression

• Limitations of the neurotransmitter/medication models
• The role of labeling emotions: hemisphere laterality
• Cytokines—sickness behavior
• Activity reward system—behavior activation
• Mindfulness

Healthy Habits—Planting SEEDS

• Sleep hygiene
• Exercise—BDNF—miracle grow
• Education—cognitive
• Diet—amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins
• Social medicine
• Mindfulness

Target Audience