Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

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Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

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Daniel Solof www.injoytherapy.com

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

Does Neuroscience rewire everything we believe about the psyche?

Does Neuroscience create new pathways for mental health counseling?

Introduction Yes to both! The science of the nervous system fills in the grey area of our understanding of the body, mind, and psyche. For centuries the Western World has been discussing the relationship between the mind, body and soul. Foremost, the mind, body, and soul have been considered separate things and are valued as having more or less control over the others. The prominent paradigm of Western Civilization describes a model of the human as having a mind which houses the psyche and a body which performs automated survival processes. Neuroscience seems to implicitly suggest otherwise. The emergent view seems to point to the contrary; a systemic model of the human anatomy and physiology.

The prefrontal cortex, responsible for language, complex thinking and decision making, is a relatively new addition to human biology, sometime in the last 10,000 years. Alternately, the reptilian brain and limbic system are estimated to be millions of years older. These three brain components; reptilian, limbic, and prefrontal cortex make up the central nervous system and adding the peripheral and enteric nervous systems gives us a model of the whole nervous system. The nervous system suggests a more engaged role that the body plays in the psychodynamic process. Neuroscience reactivates an age old conversation of the boundaries between body and mind.

Anatomy and physiology suggest the brain is part of a much larger nervous system that extends down the spinal cord, into the internal organs, and spreads throughout the periphery linking to all points of sensation; the nervous system exists from the core to the skin. This model seems to extend the psychological mind beyond the physical brain to incorporate the whole body as a housing for an intelligent and informative neural structure. I would like to suggest that the ‘mind’ is the entire nervous system that permeates the entire ‘body’ and which includes the ‘brain’. The body then becomes something of a utility suit, protecting and enabling the mind to experience and perform discriminately in its environments.

The nervous system is an electrical communication network between the outer environment – through sense and perception – to the inner psyche. The prefrontal cortex thinks in language and complex models; the limbic system ‘thinks’ in memory, emotion, and image; and the reptilian brain ‘thinks’ in physiological sensation. Each part of the nervous system has a strategy for communication between the outer world and the inner world. Our nervous system has been controlled by a rational and logical brain for enough time that we have forgotten how to listen or speak the many languages of

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

the nervous system. We have restricted our bodies to function in our basic and automated mechanisms like shaking off stress, allowing our voice to speak or shout, sobbing, laughing, dancing anywhere, stretching anytime, acting out our restlessness, micro movements and physical adjustments, and many other automated physiological responses to stress and recovery.

The human experience in the Western World is one that is ashamed of our very nature, attempting to suppress it, and then confused when nature calls us to pay our dept. The debt shows up as mental breakdowns, emotional catastrophes, immune system collapse, hormonal imbalance, digestive syndromes, and perhaps most destructive of all, acts of violence. The human experience is denied its own nature to perform, discharge, and regulate. Most denial and inhibition occurs in our relation to sexuality, desires, and emotions. In Western Society we are encouraged to live in constant fear, shame, and confusion about our bodies, our emotions, our desires to indulge, our sexual drives, and our human relations. The irony is that everywhere we look in society we have been fed false, unhealthy images and languages of body image, emotional expression, and sexuality. Sex is everywhere and yet we feel embarrassed to even talk about it.

The psyche gives credit to the whole body as a thoughtful organism. In this perspective, the body thoughts come in the form of sensations, emotions, movements, sounds, spasms, and so forth. The body and mind both think, yet they think and express in different dialects. Whether a cry for food from the gut, increased heart beat when anxious, joint pain, a new idea, a dream, and an insight for a desired word, the nervous system has a voice and it speaks many different dialects of our being. These voices influence our intuition, our creativity, our likes and dislikes, our decisions, our impulses, and speaks out during every experience we have.

I consider this neurologic persona as the conscious and subconscious that Jung refers to and the ego construct that Eastern Philosophy refers to. Now in the modern world we have a scientific field and many therapy methods dedicated to exploring the neuro-dynamics of the psyche. The nervous system is the foundation to the psyche; the neural network is the programming that informs every belief, impulse, desire, addiction, thought, innovation, emotion, judgement, and action. Neuroscience is discovering credible and effective theories to the plasticity of the nervous system, which suggest the opportunity to deprogram and reprogram the psyche. The development of the nervous system, neural pattern reinforcement, trauma, physiological tracking, physiological discharge, and neural plasticity, play a role in the creation, continuation, destruction, and recreation of the psyche.

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

Rationale The field of Psychology is changing. Part due to the rise of mental health challenges per capita, part due to the inefficacy of traditional models of treatment, part due to the burn out of mental health practitioners, part due to the cutting edge research in Behavioral Neuroscience. I have made the inner volition to continue in the field based off my field experience and training up to the present. It is clear to me that there are more sustainable, preventative, and effective ways to treat mental illness. I have seen it building strength in the undercurrents of Western Culture and have experienced alternate methods myself. Eventually the emergence of psychophysiology will be prominent and necessary in the mainstream.

A Common Biology Traditional psychology has made an incredible attempt to generalize the psyche for use in mental health related fields. The spectrum of psychological states is constantly expanding. The spectrum can be liberating for individuals by understanding their makeup or restricting for the identity and capabilities of other individuals. The intention in this attempt is to construct a baseline and spectrum to generalize mental health and be able to diagnose and treat distinctly. The error is relying on a pre-frontal cortical perspective to generalize a biological experience. The pre-frontal cortex assumes, judges, analyzes, personalizes, aggrandizes, desecrates, and builds invalid stories and logic that perpetuate its own illusion. It’s the superficial psyche attempting to understand itself and its subconscious counterpart. The valid experience to generalize is the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and its creation of the psyche. To allow what has thought to be subconscious and bring it into the conscious awareness of being fully human. Human biology and physiology become the baseline of a universal experience.

Developing the Psyche The laws of thermodynamics describe the plasticity of any system, natural or artificial. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and will forever form and reform indefinitely. The second law of thermodynamics states that for any formation to occur it must borrow energy and information from an already existing form. The third law of thermodynamics states that a formation in isolation of any outside input will disintegrate into its most basic elements.

However no system has ever been observed in isolation without a relationship to another system. So the third law is a hypothetical concept. Furthermore, quantum physics reveals that no formation is static. Regardless of these two energetic extremes, as formations give and take energy they release form and reform respectively.

This forming and disintegration process describes the law of entropy. The law of entropy is the ability of a formation to change or remain; as a formation increases

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

entropy it becomes more plastic and as a formation reduces entropy it becomes fixed in whatever formation the environmental conditions promote.

Imagine an icicle. In this frozen form, the water molecules appear to be static, though they are not; the molecules are moving so slow that they cause the appearance of a static form. Time reveals a more dynamic process of constant change taking place.

The change occurs as the consequence of its environment. In ice form the water molecules have little entropy; the molecules are temporarily in super slow motion. As the climate becomes warmer, the icicle begins to melt. As the ice melts, the molecules increase entropy and are more able to move; the molecules are freed from the bonds of their prior condition. The drops of water pool and stream, taking on whatever shape to match the landscape. The journey continues as the molecules begin to precipitate, reaching their highest form of entropy and now able to roam freely throughout the atmosphere with a multitude of options for reforming; the molecules may roam as gasses, be absorbed by plants and animals, join a cloud, become rain, fall to a river or ocean, or once again freeze as an icicle. The options the molecule has for mobilization and reformation determines the degree of entropy it has.

The relevance to psychology is clear when you consider the function of the nervous system. The nervous system is a complex network of pathways linking the persona to the extra-personal. The nervous system is constructed to fit the environments of the individual’s early development; a particular construct to be acclimated to the conditions in an environment. Starting from within the womb, the hormones of the mother are sending information to the fetus about the world. The fetus then is constructing itself to prepare; if the mother struggles with managing stress, the fetus will put more development into the reptilian brain and if the mother primarily experiences safety and comfort, the fetus will put more development into the limbic brain. Once the child is born, the child will continue a formative process that depends on people in the environment to present models that the child will adopt. The child takes shape depending on its environment as if it were the water in a pond or stream. In some environments a child may experience trauma without a safe and effective way to complete the stress response. In this case, a condition is formed and held indefinitely in the body sending signals of an unsafe world. This state of being unsafe, results in patterns of beliefs and behaviors that correspond to the story of trauma. Conditions of belief and behavior written into the nervous system hinder an individual to act with discernment and choice as if an icicle frozen in a particular form.

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

Reinforcing the Psyche Imagine yourself standing at the trailhead of your favorite hike. You are looking at the trail you walk every time. For some reason this trail has been determined as the best route through the forest; maybe the trail is most convenient, more scenic, less risky, or maybe one person blazed a trail that everyone followed. So you walk this trail and neglect all other possible pathways through the forest. The nervous system is like this. Neural pathways are formed for convenience, protection, efficiency, safety, and that precedence is all that is needed to spot and choose the same pathway next time a similar event occurs. Patterns of behavior and belief are formed by exemplars and circumstances that justify these patterns.

Possible benefits to conditioned pathways of behavior are convenience, safety, and risk management. In raising children who are not yet independent and resilient, instilling coping skills and risk prevention can be essential in a city or neighborhood that is unsafe. Conditioning enables energy efficient and automated reactions. That is an amazing coping mechanism and life resource. This energy efficiency may even justify the existence of social norms, stereotypes, cultural traditions, spiritual disciplines, and family values.

The harmful consequences of conditioning cannot be overlooked. Patterns of behavior can continue far beyond the presence of risk and danger. This may cause repeating cycles of abusive relationships, unwarranted judgments and assumptions of others, self and world limiting beliefs, inhibition, and emotional and physical insecurity.

Conditioning is an experientially learned phenomena. This raises criticism for effective cognitive psychotherapy. Talking through things will only attend to the superficial and symptomatic conditions of the psyche. Furthermore, talking reaches rational conclusions about what is wrong and the therapeutic goals. The client is then left to carry on their lives changing their beliefs and behavior by cognition alone. On the contrary, the highest role of therapy is to create emotional and physiological breakthroughs in a safe clinical environment so the client’s behaviors and beliefs change as a result. If the patterns of belief and behavior that an individual wants to liberate from were programmed by experience or example then the liberation process requires experiential and physiological methods. This therapeutic setting provides a new framework for an individual to integrate this liberation process into their own life and only with their own decision to do so.

When an experience happens that triggers the sympathetic nervous system and the stress response engages, the body releases hormones and energy to cope with the experience. The energy is summoned for orienting to safety or removing the threat. The mainstream Western culture values the brain over the body and cognition tends to be the second on the scene and disrupts the reptilian brain’s automated response to the stress stimuli. For most individuals the cognitive mind will inhibit the physiological response because of fear, shame, taboo, and to obey social norms or conditioned behaviors. The excess energy will remain in the body, causing the nervous system to believe the stimulus or threat is still present and will continue to believe this until the energy is released.

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

The nervous system is a network that sends electrical signals to different fixtures of the body. Energy to the brain shows up as thoughts, images, words; energy to the body shows up as sensation. Sensations are like the thoughts of the body; thoughts are like the sensations of the brain. They are equally valid forms of information; two distinct languages describing the same experience.

Excess energy will reveal itself as sensation in the body and thoughts in the mind; underneath thoughts and sensations are physiological charges. Thoughts tend to turn physiological charge into story, fantasy, and belief systems; thoughts are unreliable for expressing and releasing physiological charge. Sensation is honest and without afterthought; they are warm or cold, tense or soft, pleasant or unpleasant, slow or fast, etc. Sensation is also the landmark and road map of the stored excess energy.

Attending sensation creates an opportunity for excess energy to move, express, and release, allowing the nervous system to enter a parasympathetic state for rest and recovery. No charge means no more story, thoughts or unhealthy patterns of beliefs.

Releasing the stored charge informs the nervous system that the threat is over, it is safe, and ok to move on.

Unresolved Sympathetic Arousal There is plenty of research and information describing stress related illness. The information encourages a mass surge of fitness lunatics and meditation junkies. This adds a huge social pressure to meditate, go to the gym, try yoga, and many people are stressed alone by this pressure. Stress is a state of being and a beneficial one as long as it does not move into the realm of strain in which it can become traumatic and debilitating. When stress becomes overwhelming the experience and sensation of the experience are hardwired into the amygdala as memories of danger, fear, shame, and hopelessness. Human physiology is designed to experience stress as a temporary state in order to perform and react to a stimulus at a high caliber. Stress is temporary and momentary, not something you hold onto till you can go to the gym. Sympathetic arousal allows the body to redirect vital energy from the core (digestion and immunity) to the periphery (muscles, senses, veins, etc.). Sympathetic arousal then compromises the digestive and immune system and it is only supposed to be temporary. Digesting food is secondary when life itself is on the line and necessary for hormonal recharge after a real or perceived threat.

The reptilian brain, responsible for the sympathetic and parasympathetic states, does not decipher between life threatening stress and social threatening stress; stress is stress and when it occurs the sympathetic response is activated. Trauma occurs in many forms and can form PTSP consequences regardless of the particular threat; a daily experience of racial segregation can have the same impact as a one-time life threatening event.

When the stress response is thwarted or inhibited from full expression, the sympathetic charge is suppressed somewhere in the body. The response remains primed and ready in some degree or another. Sympathetic charge requires immense amounts of energy to utilize and because it is designed to be temporary, this is ok.

However when the charge is held, it is taxing. Enough inhibition and suppression

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

causes the nervous system to deplete its stores of energy. The nervous system has no refueling capacity because the parasympathetic release is required to divert energy into the recover and recharge centers of the body, which are the gut, lymph, immune, and endocrine systems. All the while the immune and digestive systems are running at low capacity. The endocrine system cannot replenish the hormones, the nervous system cannot retain the charge, the immune system cannot protect from viruses and bacteria, and the digestive system cannot absorb necessary nutrition for the body to perform and stay vital. The body collapses into a state of catastrophe as if a computer rebooting in “safe mode.”

Sensory Awareness as a Tool The human sensory awareness is profound. Most sense stimulus is considered background noise. Though in the background the nervous system is mapping the physical, emotional, and social environment. In a regulated nervous system, the sensory map of the environment would be used to track safety and mobilize quickly, effectively, and instantly when needed.

The senses are the medium between the external environment and the internal psyche. This is the medium between reality and the perception of reality. Sound, sight, touch, scent, taste, weight, temperature, tension, and many more senses each have their interpretation of reality. Senses are a means to indulge and satiate from the environment. Senses are also a means to orient towards or away from things that bring joy and sorrow.

Sensory stimulation has a cause and effect dynamic. Marketing seeks to optimize sensory stimulation and manipulation. Similarly, cigarettes and fast food industries have maximized sensory satiation to the levels of addiction. Consider the world as a sensory stimulating playground. Everything is stimulating and causes a physiological effect; the music playing in the coffee shop, the flowers at the shop entrance, the red apple on the counter, the scent of wet dirt, the breeze and warmth of sunshine, each causes a physiological and often emotional response. The world is intoxicating and each stimulus has varying degrees of satiation, apathy on one side and addiction on the other.

Sense stimulation can be used as an effective therapeutic tool. If the nervous system needs safety to release sympathetic arousal and safety in order to maximize the therapeutic environment, then building a sensory map of the clinical environment is essential. Creating a baseline of safety will greatly impact the therapeutic results.

Furthermore, sensory awareness and physiological tracking allows an individual to notice patterns of sensation and impulse. The insula is a part of the brain responsible for physiological awareness and tracking. As sensory awareness increases, the insula thickens, creating a positive cycle of feedback which maximizes the individual’s physiological and sensory awareness. Physiological impulse is the catalyst for most behaviors. Sometimes the impulses are intuitive and sometimes they are addictive.

Regardless of the motivation, impulse awareness is essential for recognizing patterns of behavior. Some impulses can even be overridden by cognitive reasoning – which

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doesn’t remove the impulse – leading to feelings of shame, guilt, anger, and sadness.

Impulse is a physiological experience that is catalyzed from a spontaneous need to act.

Impulse may also arise from a neural construct formed by trauma and learned dependence. When we don’t act on spontaneous survival impulses the nervous system withholds sympathetic charge causing uneasy states of being. When we don’t act on previously conditioned impulses we experience discontent from strong cravings and unmet needs. Being able to distinguish between different impulses requires deft physiological tracking, recognizing patterns of needs and behavior, and becoming familiar with how each of our systems regulate itself back to safety and joy.

Freeing the Psyche Stress is unavoidable. It is rather a task to re-learn how to metabolize stress through the body so the excess energy discharges and the individual may move on, present and ready for the next experience. We share a similar physiology with animals.

Only domesticated animals have been shown to incur post-traumatic stress disorder.

There is a phenomena occurring in the human experience that is inhibiting sympathetic arousal from the enacting and the discharging of excess energy; animal psychology suggests that domestication through conditioned behavior has a major role.

Shame and fear are the major inhibiters of sympathetic arousal and parasympathetic discharge. It’s the voice inside our head that stops us from “making a fool out of ourselves.” The fear and shame are ruled by a deep desire to belong to and be accepted by a social or cultural group. In most social settings in the Western Paradigm it would be awkward to yell, shake, stretch, cry, dance, jump, and run in a public and social setting. Fortunately, life threats are less common among social settings; however many communities do experience the constant threat of danger. In most communities threat exists as sexual harassment, prejudice, racism, sexism, shaming, criticism, and inappropriate jokes. The more subtle the threat, the more subtle the physiological response, and the more difficult it may be to distinguish the response.

In any of the mentioned circumstances, finding the right response is itself stressful because freedom of expression verbally and physically can be taboo. The cognitive brain gets involved in order to analyze the situation and decide the best way to respond.

Cognition under stress is slow; analysis and reflection are designed for afterthought not for decision making during an emotional and physical threat. These moments are registered in the reptilian brain as a compromise to survival. There is no story in the reptilian brain – stress is a threat to survival always. The individual using cognition for coping realizes there are few options and if none of them seem like a clear route to emotional safety, they will feel helpless and shut down, and a freeze mechanism engages in order to cope with overwhelm. The excess energy from the arousal remains until the individual is able to metabolize it later or a similar circumstance retriggers it.

In most cases of emotional and physical threat there is actually very little time to think. Thoughts are a higher brain function that are not helpful or necessary for getting to safety. When you only have seconds to respond you need to trust an intuitive and impulsive intelligence. The reptilian brain is hardwired to automatically choose the best

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

response to any harm. During threat, this ancient brain is constantly sending resources for action that could be noticed as increased heart rate and blood flow, change in breathing, warmth in limbs and face, heightened sight and hearing, tension in pelvis and jaw, trembling, impulse to run this way, jump that way, or any other impulse to mobilize.

These physiological resources are recruited energy from the stress response – in the release of hormones – to mobilize a person to emotional or physical safety. The less conditioning, the more entropy an individual has, and the more options to respond like the molecule of water vapor discussed earlier.

When the individual, for whatever reason, inhibits this vital energy then it is stored until the opportunity to release. The nervous system becomes constrained and will replay on loop. The sympathetic charge never goes away and will innervate certain sensations, thoughts, images, and beliefs. The thoughts, images, and beliefs are as unreliable when dealing with sympathetic charge post threat as they are during threat.

So physiological sensation again becomes the access point to activate and metabolize the charge. The energy already is coded with its method of movement because the energy is coming from an intelligent system. Tracking the sensation, movement and change of sensation, and release of sensation is the metabolizing process. This process becomes familiar through practice as if learning a new language. Eventually selfconfidence and fluency are developed and the process becomes automated without inhibition.

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

From Hopelessness to Empowerment Hopelessness is an all too pervasive symptom of trauma. The sense of hopelessness occurs when the individual’s stress response is dampened, inhibited, shamed, or in constant activation from an unhealthy environment. Hopelessness is a physiological experience of an inability to act successfully in the presence of stress and threat. The source of empowerment is the physiological ability to mobilize the sympathetic arousal to safety, release, and completion.

Hopelessness becomes empowerment when the nervous system begins to metabolize its own sympathetic charge. The individual’s process of empowerment becomes a matter of trusting their own ability to successfully complete the stress cycle.

As trust in the individual’s capacity to process their own stress history increases, trust develops in the nervous system’s ability to face situations of stress and threat. The individual becomes the cause of their own physiologic and emotional regulation with more choice to regulate towards happiness and content.

Living with More Choice The setbacks of conditioning include reactionary behaviors, addiction patterns, self and world limiting beliefs, and less choice in life’s novelty. Conditioning means you are programmed to act and react in a prescribed way. There is little choice in the matter; alternatives won’t even be thought of let alone seem reasonable. If conditioning is used to instill morals, status quo, and risk prevention, then an alternative that can do the same without creating mechanical humans would be ideal. Stress conditioning is an alternate and effective model for risk prevention and the ability to mobilize given any situation.

Stress conditioning is less about establishing beliefs which lead to patterns of behavior, and more to do with empowering the individual to their own capacity to experience stress, act on it, gain safe ground, and release it. This whole process can be enlivening and in some cases, joyful. Building resilience to stress is a process of trusting the nervous system’s whole intelligence and allowing the reptilian brain to take control during times of emotional and physical threat. This trust can also be established through pre or post traumatic psychophysiological therapies.

This perspective is important because the greater capacity an individual has to experiencing the full stress cycle, the greater confidence and competence they will have. These qualities will translate as empowerment and courage rather than limitation and fear. The programs of belief and behavior become irrelevant because the individual is now able to act spontaneously and appropriately rather than living by a program. This is a process of re-animating, increasing health and vitality, and creating more opportunity for socializing and complex thinking. Without programming and an empowered sense of self, the individual has more choice in how they experience life.

Choice requires freeing oneself from a static approach to life; choice is the reward of a dynamic approach to life.

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

Most programming has its roots in withheld sympathetic charge. Programming was learned from direct experience or other’s experience of fear and shame. Safety and joy can produce programming too if the cognition believes the external environment is the source of joy rather than the innate ability to orient towards it as it can be with addiction. When safety and joy are realized as an inner phenomena, no programming is needed because there becomes an inherent trust in the self to be the source of its own experience. The trust is beyond empowering, it becomes liberating to know that under most circumstances the nervous system will act as needed and appropriately towards safety and joy.

Changing a Paradigm The effects of traditional psychotherapy seem minimal, superficial, and temporary. It seems that a psychotherapy that focuses on thoughts, story, cognition, reason, and behavior only attend to the surface and symptoms of far deeper emotional and physiological programming. Descartes mind and body dualism was widely interpreted that the psyche and consciousness existed in the brain and the body was somewhat inferior and without intelligence. The paradigm is shifting as more research is being conducted on the nervous system as a whole.

The body is intelligent. The reptilian and limbic brains are perhaps millions of years more intelligent with regards to survival than the prefrontal cortex. Survival is the mission of the first and second – chronologically speaking – brains. The reptilian brain’s primary functions are to perform during stimulation and stress and to rest and recover when safe. The limbic brain functions to cultivate connection with others through empathy, emotional stimulation, and memory. The first is focused on the capacity of the individual to survive and the second is purposed to survive with others. The stronger the social group the easier it is to survive and the less time needed for survival. A shift towards emotional connection and complex inquiry follow. Story, thought, and reason are last on the scene when it comes to survival.

In a world struck with racism, sexism, domestic violence, addiction, unsafe roads, war, and natural disasters, humans still have to survive every day. Hunger, homelessness, joblessness, loss of family, divorce, lack of community, prejudice, shame, fear, all of which are common in today’s mainstream. These are issues of basic survival. The nervous system is being over stimulated and stressed and most people do not realize it let alone recognize the physiological signals the nervous system is sending in its attempt to engage and regulate.

Psychology has neglected the reptilian and limbic systems for far long enough that the mainstream culture has forgotten the nervous system’s self-reliant techniques for survival. The mainstream culture places such a high value on cognition that most people experience life from the head perspective and thus attempt to cope from reason alone. The cognitive brain is not time tested approved for survival – it is not the purpose of the prefrontal cortex.

The distinct aspects of the nervous system are specialized for their own unique purpose. When the human is able to maximize the ability of each neural center in

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appropriate ways, the human will survive and thrive in most physically, emotionally, and socially stressful environments.

The current paradigm of health and wellness is flawed in that it reinforces the problems. Positive psychology and naturopathic medicine are making efforts to approach health and wellness from a preventative model. The key factor that encourages preventative models is building on cycles of strength and empowerment rather than treating cycles of hopelessness and despair.

The shift needs to move towards human empowerment for effective and sustainable change. The change needs to occur in and come from the individual. The goal is to restore a sense of security, hopefulness, and capability in surviving and thriving as a human. It is not the role of the practitioner to judge, shame, convince, or even offer non-consensual advice.

Change has to occur when the timing is right and force will often delay the shift or cause an unsustainable shift that will relapse to a greater effect like a rubber band stretched beyond its capacity.

Psychophysiological Therapy Cathartic and exposure therapy is effective though a dangerous process of emotional and physiological metabolizing. While for some, major catharsis can be the key to unlocking the gates of emotional and physiological awareness, for others, it can compound more sympathetic trauma and cause a deeper physiological state of freeze.

Similarly, touch in clinical realms is taboo and can be harmful for people with boundary issues, physical abuse, sexual trauma, etc. Furthermore, some people need touch to support their nervous system through the recovery process and body work can serve this need. Each nervous system requires its own methods for regulation.

Imagine a session that looked very similar to traditional psychotherapy and yet the session tracked the psychic movement in the body (sensation) and not solely the brain (thoughts). Psychophysiological therapy does not require touch. Trauma is such a delicate construct that even body workers struggle to manage when their clients spontaneously revisit trauma. If the nervous system is a universal physiology, then it seems reasonable and possible to design a therapeutic model that supports the dynamic state changes of the nervous system while retaining the variation of clinical precautions.

Limbic Resonance Humans are social creatures. It is suspected that humans developed the capacity for higher brain functioning from more complex social organization. This theory alone suggests the health and performance of humans requires the presence of healthy

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relationships and social networks. So if there is a healing capacity in socializing then there must be a neurological process taking place. Furthermore, there is potential to maximize the therapeutic outcome by understanding and safely harnessing limbic resonance.

In a society that focuses on flaw, competition, masking for beautification, not being good enough the way you are, and constantly proving yourself to belong, no wonder social anxiety and depression are rising.

Imagine bringing people together and engaging in activities that cultivate connection, safety, and contribution. In this social setting, limbic resonance could maximize the therapeutic value because each nervous system would regulate based off each other – exponential neurological regulation.

In the clinical setting, this neurological phenomena is already taking place. Most clinicians and clients do not know how to utilize this let alone realize it happening. In many modern cases, clinicians are unable to keep themselves regulated amongst the emotional and physiological chaos in their clients. Rather than a tool, limbic resonance becomes a subliminal weapon.

A Changing World Most people do not want to change. Change requires risk, exploring the unknown, and sometimes discomfort. Most people like to be comfortable and choose to stay there. At some point life may put a person in a situation where to remain the same becomes more unpleasant than the discomfort of change. At this point most people will change. In many cases after some time they may relapse. Sustainable change comes from an inner volition; a personal choice to change.

The world is constantly changing from weather patterns to technologies to politically correct verbiage. Many people wait for the world to change around them because we have been conditioned to believe this is how life works. There is a deep system of belief that we are dependent on the external environment for our own gratification and well-being. This may be correlated to the lack of initiation rituals from childhood into adulthood leaving many adults in a state of dependence rather than independence, dependable, or even interdependent.

Being conditioned to be dependent on external fulfillment leaves a subliminal unworthiness, disempowerment, passive aggression, and lack of satisfaction. It is commonly by example from mentors, transformative experiences, personal development arenas, or grace that few people wake up from this false system of belief so engrained deep in their nervous systems.

In a world requesting more social justice and inclusivity it is essential to establish a common sense of the human experience. Story, beliefs, mythos, are valuable for

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cultural sustainability. Though history has shown these same cultural differences are the source of segregation, racism, sexism, religious persecution, shame, guilt, anger, and war. Cultural diversity is necessary and is based from relationships to nature, geography, ancestry, and the divine. Simultaneously, humanity is in crises and needs a universal message of hope and connection. Sharing and understanding the same nervous system physiology can be a source of common relationship and even validate the philosophies and practices of many world religions, faiths, and spiritual traditions.

New Perspectives for Psychotherapy Cognition alone will not cure trauma, addiction, or mental disease; neither will medicine create sustainable conditions for people to overcome and rise to personal greatness and fulfillment. The information emerging out of neuroscience is challenging the field of psychology to reinvent itself. The paradigm has shifted and these perspectives may change or even discount much of what the field thought true.

Regardless of the grief or inconvenience of change, a huge opportunity exists. This opportunity can bring psychotherapy to new efficacy and spotlight the field in a new light as it was when Freud and Jung did their seminal and controversial work.

Many people are addicted to suffering, pain, sorrow, strain, though no one would recognize it let alone admit it. I am describing victimhood, addiction to stories, repeating patterns of behavior and life circumstances, requiring catharsis to experience joy, and an inability to sit comfortably in joy without shifting with haste to negativity. Positive psychology came on the scene as an approach to create a more prevention based model to focus on sustaining mental health rather than merely treating it when things go wrong. This is only one piece to solve the big issues. Hollywood, social media, news, and literature bombards our experience with heightened emotional images of suffering, pain, anger, and sorrow. The mainstream culture has a baseline of suffering – an addiction to crises – rooted in unresolved sympathetic arousal.

Chaos theory offers a description for the effect of initial conditions on establishing a baseline that ripples into consequential events. The baseline becomes the start, the familiar, the sense of self, and what is returned to. The therapeutic opportunity lies in the ability to orient clients to the baseline of joy and safety. Starting with initial conditions of safety and returning to joy frequently throughout the session reinforces new neural pathways that become programs of hope and empowerment, especially when working with trauma.

Psychotherapy is integrating new concepts of what it means to be human and how we function and regulate ourselves in a complex world. Society may not get any simpler, so our nervous systems need to catch up and build resilience to stay present and ready in a constantly changing environment. The healthy human is the one who is able to utilize each aspect of the neurological mind appropriately. Each brain center is highly specialized to perform successfully in its niche; the reptilian system used in times of stress, play, and recovery; the limbic system used in social settings, emotional regulation, and memory; and the prefrontal cortex used in complex modeling and decision making. Learning the language of each brain center and knowing how to rally

Neuropsychology of the Vulnerable Mind

your attention to each in their own is the secret to maximizing all the tools at our human disposal. A fully integrated human will not only survive but thrive to greatness.

Applied Psychophysiology Behavioral Neuroscience offers new information and perspectives that will continue to change our approach to improving mental health and social capital. Any industry can benefit from understanding the nervous system more accurately. Business and marketing can use mirror neuron stimulation for audience engagement. Body practitioners can better understand clients experiencing catharsis and PTSD and how the body holds and releases tension and inflammation. I have already detailed the opportunities for clinical psychophysiological therapy. The most influential arena for benefit is the field of social work.

Regardless of the social benefits of social work, the traditional methods are outdated, create co-dependence, increase socioeconomic segregation, and limit the field’s capacity to serve the wider society. Change will occur from the shift from fixing people to cultivating connection with a healthy sense of self and relationship to others.

Sustainability includes the health of people; though there is little effort in developing this realm. Economic and environmental sustainability is in the spot light. Social capital is slowly taking the stage as a valuable and effective focus for the sustainability of industry, community, and the world. Just as a person would steward an eco-system, the same principles apply when working with social systems. Social stewardship is a practice of increasing the social capital in society. Personal and interpersonal development is a leading industry and social work is a struggling industry. There is a contrast that needs to be addressed. The people who are receiving the highest form of social stewardship barely need it, but they can afford it. The populations who need the most help, receive trivial support mostly because lack of funding and outdated models of programming. Another highlight of a discouraging divide in the field.

Conclusion The field of Psychology needs to celebrate the renaissance that is underway. Neuroscience expands the perceived boundaries of the human experience in relation to each other and our environments. Understanding the nervous system’s dynamic state changes offers a normality for the experience of every human. Furthermore, the compassion found from understanding can create conditions of personal empowerment and social empathy. Changes applied skillfully could shift humanity into a higher expression of integrity with ourselves, each other, our economies, between cultures, and the planet. It is a great honor and privilege to participate in the renaissance.