Bouncing Back: Rewiring the Brain for Resilience and Well- Being

1. Bouncing Back:Rewiring the Brain for Resilience and Well- Being Marin CAMFT, January 17, 2014 Linda Graham, MFT www.lindagraham-mft.net lindagraham2@earthlink.net

2. Resilience and Well-Being • Dealing with challenges and crises – • The core of resilience and well-being • Developing flexible strategies – • The heart of therapeutic process

3. All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming. - Helen Keller

4. Effective Agents of Brain Change Consciousness Self-Awareness Mindfulness Self-Reflection Compassion Empathy Attention Circuit Resonance Circuit Self-Directed Neuroplasticity

5. Therapeutic Modalities AEDP Internal Family Systems EFT Gestalt Sensorimotor EMDR MBCT DBT Psychoanalytic Existential Control Mastery Client-centered Jungian Intersubjective Object Relations Transpersonal

6. The field of neuroscience is so new, we must be comfortable not only venturing into the unknown but into error. -Richard Mendius, M.D.

7. Neuroplasticity • Growing new neurons • Strengthening synaptic connections • Myelinating pathways – faster connections • Rebuilding brain structure • Re-organizing functions of structures • ….lifelong

8. Evolutionary legacy • Genetic templates • Family of origin conditioning • Norms-expectations of culture-society • Who we are and how we cope… • …is not our fault

9. Given neuroplasticity • And choices of self-directed neuroplasticity • Who we are and how we cope… • …is our responsibility

10. The brain is shaped by experience. And because we have a choice about what experiences we want to use to shape our brain, we have a responsibility to choose the experiences that will shape the brain toward the wise and the wholesome. - Richard J. Davidson, PhD

11. Conditioning • Experience causes neurons to fire • Repeated experiences, repeated neural firings • Neurons that fire together wire together • Strengthen synaptic connections • Connections stabilize into neural pathways • Condtioning is neutral, wires positive and negative

12. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, Nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptive to change. - Charles Darwin

13. Attachment Styles • Secure – safety and trust, stable and flexible, open to learning; flexible focus • Insecure avoidant – mistrust of emotions and relationships, over-focus on self-world, rigid, neural cement • Insecure-anxious – mistrust of self, over-focus on relationships, chaotic, neural swamp • Disorganized – checked out, lack of focus

14. Secure attachment kindles maturation of the brain itself. Re-parenting in therapy recovers maturation of the brain itself.

15. Pre-Frontal Cortex • Executive center of higher brain • Evolved most recently – makes us human • Development kindled in relationships • Matures the latest – 25 years of age • Evolutionary masterpiece • CEO of resilience

16. Functions of Pre-Frontal Cortex • Regulate body and nervous system • Quell fear response of amygdala • Manage emotions • Attunement – felt sense of feelings • Empathy – making sense of experience • Insight and self-knowing • Response flexibility

17. Mechanisms of Brain Change • New conditioning – focused attention • Re-conditioning – juxtaposed attention • De-conditioning – de-focused attention

18. New Conditioning • Choose new experiences • Create new learning, new memory • Encode new wiring • Install new patterns of response

19. Re-Conditioning • “Light up” neural networks • Juxtapose old negative with new positive • De-consolidation – re-consolidation • New rewires old

20. De-Conditioning • De-focusing • Loosens grip • Create mental play space • Plane of open possibilities • New insight, new behaviors

21. Modes of Processing Focused Self-referential Tasks and details Constellate a representation New conditioning and Re-conditioning

22. Models of Processing De-focused Default network Fertile neural background noise Plane of open possibilities Mental play space De-conditioning

23. 6 C’s of Coping • Calm • Compassion • Clarity • Connections to Resources • Competence • Courage

24. Calm Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace amidst the storm. -author unknown

25. Window of Tolerance SNS – fight-flight-freeze Baseline physiological equilibrium Calm and relaxed, engaged and alert WINDOW OF TOLERANCE Relational and resilient Equanimity PNS – numb out, collapse

26. Hand on the Heart • Touch – oxytocin – safety and trust • Deep breathing – parasympathetic • Breathing ease into heart center • Brakes on survival responses • Coherent heart rate • Being loved and cherished • Oxytocin – direct and immediate antidote to stress hormoncortisol

27. Touch • Hand on heart, hand on cheek • Head rubs, foot rubs • Massage back of neck • Hugs – 20 second, full-bodied

28. Reconditioning throughSoothing, Comforting, Caring • Hand on the heart • Progressive muscle relaxation • Friendly body scan • Movement opposite

29. Self-Compassion Break • How am I doing? • Is there any suffering here? • Ouch! This hurts! • Oh, sweetheart! • Take one moment to be mindful and kind • May I be safe from inner and outer harm. • May I be free of suffering, from all causes of suffering, and from causing any suffering.

30. Clarity Mindfulness: focused attention on present moment experience without judgment or resistance. Jon Kabat-Zinn

31. Mindfulness and Psychotherapy • Even-hovering attention • Unconditional positive regard • Observing ego • What are you noticing now?

32. Mindfulness • Pause, become present • Notice and name • Step back, dis-entangle, reflect • Monitor and modify • Shift perspectives • Discern options • Choose wisely

33. Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. - Viktor Frankl

34. Notice and Name • Thoughts as thoughts • Patterns of thoughts as patterns of thoughts • Feeling as feelings; cascades of feelings as cascades • States of mind as state of mind • Belief systems as belief systems • All patterns of neural firing

35. Mindfulness • Open, spacious awareness • Open possibilities • Epiphanies, insights, revelations • True nature, essential goodness • Inform, transform sense of personal self

36. Connections to Resources • People • Love guards the heart from the abyss - Mozart • Places • ….I rest in the grace of the world…Wendell Berry • Practices • As an irrigator guides water to his field, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives. - Buddha

37. Positive Emotions • Help us feel and function better • Put the brakes on negativity • Antidote survival responses • “Left shift” – open to experience • Better coping with stress and trauma • Possibilities, creativity, productivity • Cooperation and collaboration • Flexibility and resilience

38. Negativity Bias • Right hemisphere • Emotional-social processing • Neuronally connected to lower brain • Withdrawal, avoid stance toward experience • Left hemispere • Language and logic • Less connected to lower brain • Open, curious, approach stance toward experience • Left Shift

39. Cultivate Gratitude • 2 minute free write • Gratitude journal • Gratitude buddy • Carry love and appreciation in your wallet

40. Positivity Portfolio • Ask 10 friends to send cards • Assemble phrases on piece of paoer • Tape to bathroom mirror or computer monitor • Carry in wallet or purse • Read phrases 3 times a day for 30 days • Savor and appreciate

41. Taking in the Good • Notice: in the moment or in memory • Enrich: the intensity, duration, novelty, personal relevance, multi-modality • Absorb: savor 10-20-30 seconds; felt sense in the body • Repeat; persevere; little and often

42. Shame De-Rails Resilience Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and thereforunworhty of acceptance and belonging. Shame erodes the part of ourselves that believes we are capabel of change. We cannot change a nd grow when we are in shame, and we can’t use shame to change ourselves or others. - Brene Brown, PhD

43. Re-conditioning • Memory de-consolidation – re-consolidation • “Light up” neural networks of problematic memory • Cause neural networks to fall apart temporarily and instantly rewire by: • Juxtaposing positive memory that directly contradicts or disconfirms; • Focused attention on juxtaposition of both memories held in simultaneous dual awareness • Causes the falling apart and the rewiring

44. Wished for Outcome • Evoke memory of what did happen • Imagine new behaviors, new players, new resolution • Hold new outcome in awareness, strengthening and refreshing • Notice shift in perspective of experience, of self

45. Do One Scary Thing a Day • Venture into new or unknown • Somatic marker of “uh, oh” • Dopamine disrupted • Cross threshold into new • Satisfaction, mastery • Dopamine restored

46. I am no longer afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

47. Bouncing Back:Rewiring the Brain forResilience and Well-Being Marin CAMFT Linda Graham, MFT www.lindagraham-mft.net lindagraham2@earthlink.net