Brain Change Therapy: Clinical Interventions for Self-Transformation
Carol J. Kershaw, J. William Wade
Language: English
Pages: 311
ISBN: 2:00362171
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
When conditions like anxiety and depression are experienced chronically, they condition neural pathways and shape a person’s perception of and response to life events. As these pathways are reinforced, unhealthy neural networks turn on with increasing ease in the presence of conscious and unconscious triggers. In this groundbreaking book, Kershaw and Wade present Brain Change Therapy (BCT), a therapeutic protocol in which clients learn to manage their emotions and behaviors, and thus reduce stress and control emotional reactivity.
Drawing from the latest neuroscientific research as well as integrative principles from hypnosis, biofeedback, and cognitive therapy, BCT helps clients reach stable neurological and emotional states and thus shift perspectives, attitudes, beliefs, and personal narratives toward the positive. BCT starts with the working assumption that effective therapeutic change must inevitably include a repatterning of neural pathways, and employs “self-directed neuroplasticity” through the active practicing of focused attention. As an adjunct to these methods, it helps clients create new, empowering life experiences that can serve as the basis for new neural patterns.
The book begins by laying the foundation for body–mind and brain–body interventions by exploring the basics of the brain: its anatomy, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, electrochemical processes, and the rhythms of the brain and body and nature. The authors set forth a detailed protocol for neuroassessment and evaluation of new clients, with particular attention to assessing a client’s habitually activated emotional circuits, neural imprints, state flexibility, level of arousal, and any relevant neurobiological conditions.
The authors go on to outline BCT and its interventions geared toward stress reduction and state change, or the capacity to shift the mind from one emotional state to another and to shift the brain from one neural pattern to another. Protocols for specific presenting problems, such as fear, anxiety, and life-threatening and chronic illnesses are outlined in detail. Because of the breadth of the BCT approach, it is effective in working with individuals who are interested in shifting and conditioning peak performance states of consciousness, and the authors offer protocols for helping their clients reach peak professional performance as well.
With this book, clinicians will be able to empower their clients to find their way out of a wide range of debilitating mental states.
neurotransmitters, are dopamine, acetylcholine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and serotonin. Dopamine Dopamine is both a neurotransmitter and a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Tyrosine, an amino acid found in proteins such as meat, nuts, eggs, dairy products, and beans, is a precursor to dopamine, and dopamine is a precursor of both epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and another closely related molecule, norepinephrine (or noradrenaline). Epinephrine is implicated in levels of
may alter gene expression over generations (Pembrey et al., 2006). An ancestor’s habits of overeating, heavy drinking, and minimal exercising can contribute to the expression of “fat” genes. Research has not yet fully demonstrated the ability to manipulate a broad spectrum of epigenetic factors, but there are at least two studies suggesting that possibility. It takes only the addition of a methyl group (one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms) to change an epigenome. When a methyl group
can look forward to feeling cooler … Most people, when they begin to feel a little cooler, feel a little more energetic … a little more enthusiasm … remembering how pleasant it is to have a break in the hot weather … and the leaves begin to turn and if you listen carefully, even the birds’ songs changes … and already signs of a coolness in the environment. In some places you can watch the seasons change rather dramatically but here, you have to notice the subtleties. “As I have been talking to
behaviors—meaning almost all actions—are responses; that is, they usually follow a stimulus, which may be either an external event or an internal state. Generally, a behavior is an attempt to change a state by meeting a human need or reducing a level of physiological/psychological stress. Such behaviors, whether constructive or destructive, are frequently initiated by the activation of a neural imprint. Neural imprints or life patterns (Young & Kloska, 1999; Wisneski & Anderson, 2005) can be
behavior, verbal skills, and attention. A protocol that alternatively ascended and descended from beta to gamma enhanced arithmetic skills and attention. A protocol that alternated between 14 and 22 Hz increased overall intelligence. Several protocols, including a combination of theta and delta and a progressive slowing over 30 minutes to delta, were effective in relieving short-term stress. Migraines were prevented with a 30-Hz stimulus that alternated between left and right hemispheres, and a