Jennifer Sweeton – 2-Day Mastery Course on Neuroscience Informed Therapy: Connect Complicated Brain Research with Accessible Therapeutic Strategies for Anxiety, Depression, Chronic Pain, Substance Abuse & Trauma

Outline

DAY 1

Understand the Brain’s Reward System

• Habit formation & maintenance
• Why the brain doesn’t always choose well
  • The conscious brain myth
  • Brain dictated actions
  • Impulse vs routines
  • Reward & habit
  • Coping & stress
• Brain-wise change
  • Impulse strategies
  • Serotonin
  • Solidifying change – from neurons to brain regions
  • From state to trait: Brief experiences to long lasting change
• Willpower
  • Willpower: where does it reside?
  • Role of exercise
  • Mindfulness
  • A brief willpower workout

The Body’s Impact on the Brain: Alter Physical State to Manage Stress and Anxiety

• Body-Brain-Mind Talk
• The Vagal Nerve
• Heart rate variability
• Interoception
• Build stress resiliency & emotional regulation
• Breath, posture, deep relaxation
• The Body-Brain-Mind connection across treatment approaches

The Brain’s Impact on the Body

• Chronic pain, nociceptors and neurotransmitters
• Dorsolateral prefrontal lobe and the centralization of pain
• The influence of stress on pain and inflammation
• Pain measurement
• CBT interventions to reappraise pain
• Pain catastrophizing
• Biofeedback
• Mind-Body interventions for pain

How Relationships Change the Brain: The Neuroscience of Attachment

• Neuropeptides: behavior and oxytocin
• Healing through the social brain
• The role of storytelling
• The brain in love
• Brain behavior of long-term love
  • Novelty vs. habit
• Engendering secure attachment
  • Key brain networks
  • Build compassion & empathy

DAY 2

From a Depressed Brain to a Resilient Brain

• How the depressed brain gets stuck
  • Hemispheric laterality
  • Cytokines & depression
• The neuroscience of guilt & shame
• Opposing pathways
• Brain intercommunication
• Gratitude – neurochemistry & practice
• Neurofeedback: Research on direct communication with the brain

Trauma Treatment and the Science of Memory

• Grounding
• Titrating emotions with mindfulness
• The fight/flight/freeze response in trauma
• Executive functioning
• Implicit memories
  • Dual awareness
  • Brain savvy narratives
• Breath/Movement/Awareness
• The treatment of shame in trauma

The Addicted Brain: Clinical Implications of the Neuroscience of Craving

• The role of the reward center
• The neuroscience of craving
  • Mindfulness & movement based supports
  • Identifying false sanctuaries & underlying beliefs
• Dual awareness
• Overcome conflict and risk avoidance
• The Aging Brain
• Brain changes across the lifespan
• Memory improvement strategies
• Buffering from Alzheimer’s Disease
• Is Mindfulness a neuroprotective approach?

Nutrition & the Brain: We Are What We Eat!

• Nutrition for optimal brain functioning
• The brain on sugar
• Nutraceuticals
• Creating an interdisciplinary team

The Limitations of Neuroscientific Research and Potential Treatment Risks

• fMRI imaging – blood flow vs. neuronal activity
• How only looking at brain activations produces an incomplete picture
• Neuroscientific studies, sample size, and validity
• Animal research – directly applicable to humans?
• Psychotherapeutic techniques – specific limitations and risks