scholarly journals Child Traumatic Stress and the Sacred: Neurobiologically Informed Interventions for Therapists and Parents

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Joseph E. De Luna ◽  
David C. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Interpersonal Neurobiology ◽  
Adverse Experiences ◽  
Physiological Reactions ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Child Traumatic Stress

Children experience trauma and adverse experiences at an alarming rate. The negative impact of traumatic experiences on a child’s developing brain is pervasive, adversely affecting one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, physiological reactions, and social relationships. Conversely, the nature, pattern, timing and duration of therapeutic experiences can change the brain in ways that support and cultivate therapeutic growth and healing. The purpose of this paper will be to review and expand on two prominent neurobiological therapeutic frameworks within the field of child trauma therapy: the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and Interpersonal Neurobiology. We will discuss the ways in which trauma experiences are organized in the brain and how therapeutic and parenting interventions can address the key areas of the brain that are impacted. Further, this paper will expand on these frameworks to explore how the sacred (within primarily a Judeo-Christian monotheistic religious tradition) can be integrated within the therapeutic process—specifically through the themes of safety, relational connection, and meaning-making.

Trauma and Its Sequelae in Children and Adolescents

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Eileen A. Dombo ◽  
Christine Anlauf Sabatino
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Externalizing Disorders ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Adverse Experiences

The most current research on trauma and child development demonstrates that there are significant risk factors for school success. At the same time, resilience and protective factors help other children overcome these obstacles. Chapter 2 explores the effects of trauma on children and adolescents. Data from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, as well as other academic and epidemiological studies, are used to address the negative impact of traumatic experiences on child development. The neurobiology of trauma is explored along with other bio-psycho-social-spiritual effects of abuse, neglect, and other adverse experiences affecting children in the United States. Internalizing and externalizing disorders present in children who experience abuse are also addressed.

Bridging the Gap Between Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Interpersonal Neurobiology: A Combined Approach for Counseling Families

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Emily Corbin ◽  
Aaron M. Norton
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Brief Therapy ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Interpersonal Neurobiology ◽  
Brain Hemisphere ◽  
Left Brain ◽  
Solution Focused Brief Therapy ◽  
The Right ◽  
Solution Focused ◽  
The Brain

This article proposes a comprehensive counseling approach by integrating techniques from solution-focused brief therapy and interpersonal neurobiology. This approach allows counselors to intentionally utilize both hemispheres of the brain during the therapeutic process—anchoring the techniques of solution-focused brief therapy in the left-brain hemisphere while connecting to the client through the right-brain hemisphere. This combined method incorporates five key principles: the therapeutic relationship, co-construction of reality, use of questions, a focus on solutions, and emphasis on positive emotions.

Putative neural consequences of captivity for elephants and cetaceans

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Jacobs ◽  
Heather Rally ◽  
Catherine Doyle ◽  
Lester O’Brien ◽  
Mackenzie Tennison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Present Review ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Impoverished Environment ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The present review assesses the potential neural impact of impoverished, captive environments on large-brained mammals, with a focus on elephants and cetaceans. These species share several characteristics, including being large, wide-ranging, long-lived, cognitively sophisticated, highly social, and large-brained mammals. Although the impact of the captive environment on physical and behavioral health has been well-documented, relatively little attention has been paid to the brain itself. Here, we explore the potential neural consequences of living in captive environments, with a focus on three levels: (1) The effects of environmental impoverishment/enrichment on the brain, emphasizing the negative neural consequences of the captive/impoverished environment; (2) the neural consequences of stress on the brain, with an emphasis on corticolimbic structures; and (3) the neural underpinnings of stereotypies, often observed in captive animals, underscoring dysregulation of the basal ganglia and associated circuitry. To this end, we provide a substantive hypothesis about the negative impact of captivity on the brains of large mammals (e.g., cetaceans and elephants) and how these neural consequences are related to documented evidence for compromised physical and psychological well-being.

Pliable Media as Transitional Space: From Psychotic Indifferentiation Toward The Construction of Meaning in Schizophrenia

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 837-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Solano ◽  
Luca Quagelli
Keyword(s):  
Schizophrenic Patient ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Transitional Space ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Transference Relationship ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function

Clinical material from the treatment of a highly destructive schizophrenic patient is used to demonstrate the role and function of therapeutic mediations in promoting transformation and symbolization. Use of the Squiggle Game as a therapeutic mediation is shown to sustain the therapeutic process and to facilitate working through of the obscure and complex dynamics commonly seen in the treatment of psychotic patients. The Squiggle Game presents a first transitional space entailing both the concreteness of psychosis and the potential for symbolization provided by psychoanalysis. The game becomes the first meeting ground for the progressive encounters of the therapeutic couple, primarily because in it the violent destructiveness of psychosis is partly deflected in a way that fosters development of the transference relationship. Step-by-step emotional transformations gained through the Squiggle Game are reported and discussed, together with the patient’s need to rely on nonverbal communicative modes to bring early traumatic experiences that never reached verbalization into treatment. This working through process furthered development of the dyad’s intense transference-countertransference dynamics, which stimulated construction of a link between here-and-now and there-and-then in sessions, leading to the patient’s integration and a sense of the life-historical significance of her experience.

scholarly journals Ecstasy from a physiological point of view

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 74-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaj Björkqvist
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Study ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Psychosomatic Diseases ◽  
The Brain

The biological study of man is one of today's most rapidly advancing sciences. There is no reason for not utilizing these methodologies of research and the knowledge already gained when studying ecstasy and other similar religious phenomena. Drugs have been used in all parts of the world as an ecstasy technique. Since mental states and physiological correlates always accompany each other, it is obvious that the human mind can be affected by external means, for instance by drugs. But the opposite is also true; mental changes affect the body, as they do in the case of psychosomatic diseases. Ecstasy is often described as an extremely joyful experience; this pleasure must necessarily also have a physiological basis. It is of course too early to say anything for certain, but the discovery of pleasure centres in the brain might offer an explanation. It is not far-fetched to suggest that when a person experiences euphoric ecstasy, it might, in some way or other, be connected with a cerebral pleasure center. Can it be, for example, that religious ecstasy is attained only by some mechanism triggering off changes in the balance of the transmitter substances? Or is it reached only via a change in the hormonal balance, or only by a slowing down of the brain waves, or is a pleasure centre activated? When a person is using an ecstasy technique, he usually does so within a religious tradition. When he reaches an experience, a traditional interpretation of it already exists.

scholarly journals Psychological prevention of injuries of the musculoskeletal system in elite athletes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
E. I. Razumets
Keyword(s):  
Musculoskeletal System ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Elite Athletes ◽  
Sports Injury ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Return To Sports ◽  
Traumatic Episode ◽  
Elite Sports

The article presents a study of traumatic experiences by high-class athletes (members of the Russian national teams). Data on the subjective sensations of athletes who have suffered from injury of the musculoskeletal system are obtained, patterns in the perception of the consequences of an injury event are revealed. Also we present data on the attitude of athletes to injury in the aspect of professional activity. The analyzed information is an important component in the development of personalized programs for the prevention of reinjury in elite sports.Objective: to assess the psychoemotional experiences of sports trauma by elite athletes in the process of rehabilitation treatment after the musculoskeletal system injury.Materials and methods: a specially developed medical and psychological interview was conducted with athletes-members of the sports national Russian Federation teams, who are inpatient treatment in the sports traumatology department, in order to obtain primary subjective information from the athlete about his presentation of his own experiences of a traumatic episode. Further, the information obtained from the interviews was analyzed and grouped for further evaluation.Results: we state the significant influence exerted by the previous traumatic experience on the future life and professional activity of an athlete. Moreover, the influence can be both negative (fear, anxiety, kinesiophobia, uncertainty in sports-specific movements) and positive (acquired skills of coping with traumatic experiences, gaining new knowledge about one’s physical and psychological capabilities).Conclusions: thus, despite the diversity of individual reactions of athletes to injury, different life situations, sports and traumatic events, it is possible to identify general patterns in the perception of elite athletes of the injury itself, as well as the entire process of recovery and return to sports. This information is very important both for minimizing the negative impact of a sports injury on the psychological recovery of an athlete by switching his attention to identifying the “positive” consequences of the injury, and for the prevention of repeated injuries in elite sports.

Babies and bathwaters: attachment, neuroscience, evolution and the left

Soundings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (73) ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Graham Music
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Huge Amount ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Interpersonal Neurobiology ◽  
Selfish Genes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
The Brain

This article challenges thinkers and activists on the left who are over-suspicious of ideas heralding from disciplines such as interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, developmental psychology, and perhaps especially, evolutionary theory. Although scepticism is frequently warranted, especially as such discourses are often co-opted for neoliberal or far right ends, there is much in all of them that melds well with critiques of hegemonic social orders, providing potential fuel for those working for social change. Much work, for example that of Amy Cuddy, can be interpreted both conservatively and progressively. Work from within an attachment theory paradigm can play a crucial part in the battle of ideas: it has a huge amount to teach about how to create a more humane and egalitarian world, and in countering neoliberal beliefs that humans are innately primarily aggressive, competitive or selfish, or have selfish genes. The days are now over when the biological, psychological and the social need to be pitted against each other. Rather, they now have to be seen as mutually constituted. The brain is a social organ, embedded, embodied, enactive and extended, in large part a reflection of the social conditions in which it grows.

scholarly journals Resilience: Safety in the Aftermath of Traumatic Stressor Experiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Matheson ◽  
Ajani Asokumar ◽  
Hymie Anisman
Keyword(s):  
Stress Responses ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Safe Place ◽  
Coping Responses ◽  
Biological Stress ◽  
Adverse Experiences ◽  
The Individual

The relationship between adverse experiences and the emergence of pathology has often focused on characteristics of the stressor or of the individual (stressor appraisals, coping strategies). These features are thought to influence multiple biological processes that favor the development of mental and physical illnesses. Less often has attention focused on the aftermath of traumatic experiences, and the importance of safety and reassurance that is necessary for longer-term well-being. In some cases (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) this may be reflected by a failure of fear extinction, whereas in other instances (e.g., historical trauma), the uncertainty about the future might foster continued anxiety. In essence, the question becomes one of how individuals attain feelings of safety when it is fully understood that the world is not necessarily a safe place, uncertainties abound, and feelings of agency are often illusory. We consider how individuals acquire resilience in the aftermath of traumatic and chronic stressors. In this respect, we review characteristics of stressors that may trigger particular biological and behavioral coping responses, as well as factors that undermine their efficacy. To this end, we explore stressor dynamics and social processes that foster resilience in response to specific traumatic, chronic, and uncontrollable stressor contexts (intimate partner abuse; refugee migration; collective historical trauma). We point to resilience factors that may comprise neurobiological changes, such as those related to various stressor-provoked hormones, neurotrophins, inflammatory immune, microbial, and epigenetic processes. These behavioral and biological stress responses may influence, and be influenced by, feelings of safety that come about through relationships with others, spiritual and place-based connections.

Sleep

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor G. Carrión ◽  
John A. Turner ◽  
Carl F. Weems
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Sleep Disturbances ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Specific Symptoms ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Underlying Pathology

The architecture of healthy sleep rests upon a network of several interacting neurochemical systems, an arrangement that is easily disrupted by the experience of traumatic stress. As a result, sleep may be among the most susceptible of behaviors to have a negative impact as a result of trauma. Sleep disturbances, or “parasomnias,” such as nightmares, sleepwalking, and insomnia are one of the most prominent hallmarks of PTSD, and the study of these sleep-specific symptoms can provide a window into the underlying pathology of the disorder. The current chapter reviews the preclinical animal literature that has informed our understanding of the brain structures that are involved in the development of these parasomnias. In reviewing adult and child studies of disrupted sleep in PTSD, a distinction is made between the subjective and objective assessment of sleep quality, with a call made for an emphasis on objective measurements in future research.

scholarly journals The Role of Dietary Antioxidants in the Pathogenesis of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Their Impact on Cerebral Oxidoreductive Balance

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Winiarska-Mieczan ◽  
Ewa Baranowska-Wójcik ◽  
Małgorzata Kwiecień ◽  
Eugeniusz R. Grela ◽  
Dominik Szwajgier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Functional Disorders ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Diet Supplements ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
All Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are progressive diseases of the nervous system that lead to neuron loss or functional disorders. Neurodegenerative diseases require long-term, sometimes life-long pharmacological treatment, which increases the risk of adverse effects and a negative impact of pharmaceuticals on the patients’ general condition. One of the main problems related to the treatment of this type of condition is the limited ability to deliver drugs to the brain due to their poor solubility, low bioavailability, and the effects of the blood-brain barrier. Given the above, one of the main objectives of contemporary scientific research focuses on the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. As disorders related to the competence of the antioxidative system are a marker in all diseases of this type, the primary prophylactics should entail the use of exogenous antioxidants, particularly ones that can be used over extended periods, regardless of the patient’s age, and that are easily available, e.g., as part of a diet or as diet supplements. The paper analyzes the significance of the oxidoreductive balance in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Based on information published globally in the last 10 years, an analysis is also provided with regard to the impact of exogenous antioxidants on brain functions with respect to the prevention of this type of diseases.

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