By Karly Danos, LPC
When providing treatment, I believe it is imperative for clients to not only develop subjective insight into themselves, but also to objectively understand what is going on in the brain. Neuroscience explains the physiological barriers (and opportunities), behind difficulties in changing undesirable behavior. I use the Hand Model of the Brain, courtesy of Dr. Dan Seigel (2017) to aid in teaching basic neuroscience with almost every client I see. It is powerful stuff!
The expressions on clients’ faces are worth the lengthy description; I have developed a method of sharing the information learned from one of my favorite psychoeducational books: Buddha’s Brain (Hanson & Mendius, 2009). When I read this information, I so desperately wanted to share the major points with clients; so, in combination with the Hand Model, here is my abridged version of neuroscience basics, which I am excited to now share with you:
ONE
Think about a sonogram. Do you remember seeing that little mass of cells almost in the shape of a jelly bean on the screen? That is your brain stem, beginning to follow protocol in creating little you! It is where you began; therefore, remember that it wins every time. Following the Hand Model of the Brain, the brain stem is your wrist, and it is connected to the rest of your body (your arm). It is responsible for what is called autonomic functioning: eating, sleeping, breathing, etc. This is what keeps the organism (your body) alive and cohesively functioning.
TWO
Right above that, according to the Hand Model: your thumb inside your palm (make the number 4 with your fist), represents the amygdala. It is responsible for the emotion mapping part of your brain and it is directly connected to the brain stem. The amygdala is responsible for your feelings, even ones you cannot quite name. It is why babies who cannot speak, emote (cry, scream, babble) and how they can learn danger from a nonverbal age. Think about accidentally placing your spread out hand on a hot stove. Did you grimace a little bit? You probably experienced a negative sensation or thought to yourself, OUCH! That is the amygdala talking. Another fun example: if a mountain lion is chasing you- you do not have to think to yourself: “okay self… you need to get away now;” you just instinctively know to high-tail it out of there. That is your amygdala sending the emotion signal (fear) to your brain stem to protect the body.
THREE
Directly above the amygdala, we have the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC), which is responsible for our thought mapping, otherwise known as our rational brain. In the Hand Model, this is the 4 other fingers, which fold over on top the thumb to make a fist (or a little brain). The PFC is responsible for higher level cognitive function and objective thought content. It does not take emotion into account. Studies have shown that this does not develop until minimally age 25 (Hanson & Mendius, 2009). When a person experiences a trauma or a time of intense emotion, the fight flight, or freeze response is triggered. When this happens, the PFC goes “offline” to divert the energy to protecting the organism. Also, all three parts of the brain frantically attempt to regulate themselves in the moment, and the brain will create and save these patterns until they are addressed and corrected.
Now you might be wondering: What do those numbers mean? Well this is my way of remembering, biologically, without intervention (like therapy): what parts of the brain “win” the most, or take control when behavior is concerned, and in what order.
Your brain stem will do anything to protect your being; this is why we have a hard time focusing when we have to use the bathroom or when we are hungry. It is also why we get “hangry.” Your body is telling you “feed me or I won’t stop making noises,” (how dramatic), creating a sense of anger or frustration to address its concern. Directly above that, our amygdala, or our emotions, have secondary control; and because they are separate from our rational brain, we may struggle to put words to them. Because they are connected to our survival and our needs, they do not go away unresolved. It is physics; energy is not destroyed (no matter how much we ignore it) it is simply diverted or stored until it is addressed. And because our emotions are connected to survival, the body tells us we have to honor them, and pay attention, or things will not change in how we cope- even if we know we should do something different.
Finally, the PFC, when called upon, can come back online and provide us with a rational thought process to calm ourselves. In other words, it maps out situations objectively. However, because it is not related to raw survival, it has less control, unless you do some good old CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) with your therapist.
The goal of therapy is to address this dysregulation that may occur from any life stressor or trauma. When the brain gets dysregulated, all three parts do not cease to function, but they cease to work cohesively together. This is what I call “the train you can’t stop.” I see this when clients tell me: “I know what I need to do, why am I not doing it?” Well that is because your patterned behavior was etched during the most malleable time in existence, before the PFC was fully formed and/or when it was offline. When we can identify how the body’s survival and emotion is tied to a behavior, we truly have the key to unlocking change. Therefore, through a myriad of methodologies, the job of a therapist is to help you connect the dots, make sense of your current coping methods, and teach your brain to re-integrate. The goal is to cohesively address body function, emotion, and the cognitive process to change behavior. That way you not only know what you need to do mentally, but you also have the physiological and emotional understanding to do it.
References
Hanson, R., & Mendius, R. (2009). Buddha's brain: the practical neuroscience of happiness, love & wisdom. New Harbinger Publications.
Seigel, Dan. Mind Sight Institute. (2017, August 9). Dr. Dan Siegel's Hand Model of the Brain. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-m2YcdMdFw.
*For a video summary of the Hand Model of the Brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-m2YcdMdFw