Mindsight Approach To Well-Being - Comprehensive Course Outline

The
Mindsight Approach to Well-‐Being: A Comprehensive Course in Interpersonal Neurobiology
A Few Brief Words of Orientation and Welcome: This set of notes is a highlight
of key elements of the course and is not a comprehensive outline or summary.
The act of taking notes during the course, which can be added to these highlights,
may activate your hippocampus and strengthen the encoding of memory for the
content. Engaging in the experiential exercises will likely also widen your
learning, creating motor and sensory bodily memories that then can become
woven with conceptual and clinical discussions for a broader and more
rewarding learning experience. Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION TO THIS COURSE:

Comprehensive Course in Interpersonal Neurobiology (0:01-‐24:18)

• Consilience: Assessing the universal findings across fields and disciplines
• Interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) as a framework

Clinical “CAT”
1. Conceptualization
2. Assessment
3. Treatment

Mind, Embodied Brain, and Relationships (28:24-‐1:03:56)

Mind

Brain Relationships

Triangle of Well-‐Being

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 1

The Mindsight Approach to Well-‐Being: A Comprehensive Course in Interpersonal Neurobiology
• Electro-‐chemical energy flow is the essence of neural firing patterns that
underlie the brain aspect of experience

MIND, PART I:

Mind: An Emergent Property of Energy Flow (0:01-‐27:34)

• The mind has several facets, each of which may be an emergent property of
energy and information flow. In this way, the “system of mind” may be
how energy and information flow within us – within the body – and
between us – between our bodily selves and the larger world. This system
of mind has the three features of a complex system:

Features of a Complex System
1. Open to external influence
2. Chaos capable
3. Nonlinear

The 4 Facets of Mind
1. Information processing
2. Consciousness
3. Subjective experience
4. Emergent and self-‐organization

• Complex systems have self-‐organization as a recursive, emergent
property

• We can propose that one facet of mind can be defined as an embodied
and relational, emergent, self-‐organizing process that regulates energy
and information flow

Mind: Self-‐organization and Integration (27:35-‐50:35)

• Regulation includes monitoring and modifying

• When a system is not optimally self-‐organizing, the system veers
towards rigidity, chaos, or both

• Optimal self-‐organization involves the integration of elements of the
system leading to harmony described as a FACES flow:


FACES Flow
Flexible
Adaptive
Coherent
Energized
Stable

• Every symptom of every disorder listed in the Diagnostic Statistical
Manual (DSM-‐V) can be reframed in terms of chaos and rigidity

• Integration: The differentiation and linkage of parts of a system

Mind: Consciousness (50:36-‐58:42)

• The subjective experience or felt texture of being aware can be thought
of as a prime – something that is not reducible to something else

Two Levels of Reality, According to Physics
1. Newtonian The study of physical laws that describe the interactions
and motion of matter with systems of forces that can be
determined by basic mathematical formulas
2. Quantum The study of reality, seen most readily on the scale of
subatomic particles, in which it is most readily observed,
though quantum properties have been demonstrated even
for larger objectives such as matter

• Consciousness: The subjective experience of knowing

Mind: Subjective Experience (58:43-‐1:05:56)

• Subjective experience: The internal texture of lived life; not observable
directly by others


A + B AB

• An emergent property, like AB, cannot be reduced to A and B alone:
The properties of water cannot be reduced to Hydrogen and Oxygen’s
individual properties, even though water is compose of 2 Hydrogens
and 1 Oxygen

Mind: Information Processing (1:05:57-‐1:18:15)

• We can view cognition as the way in which we experience symbolic
patterns of energy. Some fields speak of the 4 Fs:

The 4 Es of Cognition

1. Embodied
2. Embedded
3. Extended
4. Enacted

• Attention directs energy flow; emotion and many other inner and
interpersonal factors influence attention

• Focal attention occurs within awareness; nonfocal attention occurs
outside of awareness

Awareness of Breath Practice (1:18:16-‐1:37:16)

• A mindfulness practice in which we pay attention to our moment-‐to-‐
moment experience

• See if you can find compassion if your mind wanders; gently guide it
back to your intended focus

Sensing vs. observing

• “Name it to tame it” in context of distractions, refocusing your
attention back to your intention


MIND, PART 2:

The Interrogatives: The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the
Mind (0:01-‐27:36)

• What: Emergent, self-‐organizing process of energy and information
flow as well as information processing, subjective experience and
consciousness – the four facets of mind
Top-‐Down Process Learned prior to current experience; influences

interpretation of sensory experience into perception,
cognition, and planning
Bottom-‐Up Process The raw flow of energy at the root of experience; Energy
patterns before learning; A beginner’s mind – experiencing
as if it were the first encounter

• Where: Throughout the embodied brain and in relationships – also
known as within and between

• When: The present moment, but there may be a differential accounting
for the directionality of change known as “The Arrow of Time”

• Who: Both a conduit (bottom-‐up process) and constructor (top-‐down
process) of experience

• How: Through varying degrees of integration; impaired integration
brings dysfunction, while integration brings well-‐being

• Why: A hypothesis is to bring greater integration and well-‐being into
the world

Mindsight (27:37-‐37:56)
The Three Components of Mindsight

Insight: Reflecting with awareness by focusing attention on the internal, subjective
world of one’s own interior mental experience, including feelings, thoughts,
memories
Empathy: Sensing the inner experience of another within one's own mind; forming
a mental map of another; feeling felt by an empathic other is the foundation of a
supportive relationship
Integration: The differentiation or specialization, and, ultimately, linkage of

systems including the brain and interpersonal relationships; without integration,
chaos, rigidity, or both emerge, resulting in a state of mental dysfunction; with
integration, harmony emerges with flexibility, adaptability, coherence, stability, and
energy (a FACES flow)
• Eye sight (for the physical world visible to the eye) vs. mindsight (for
sensing the mind of self and other)

• Integration made visible is kindness, compassion, and well-‐being

SIFTing Your Mind
Sensations
Images
Feelings
Thoughts

Triception and the Window of Tolerance (37:57-‐57:46)

• Triception: The ability to perceive the mind, embodied brain, and
relationships – the triangle of human experience

Integration
{Adaptive Function & Harmony}

RIGIDITY
Window of Tolerance

Integrative Movement I: Warm up, Step 1 and 2 (57:47-‐1:08:05)

• Strengthening monitoring skills

• Warm up: Allow energy flow to begin by tapping along the body – from
the arms, down the torso, through the legs, and back up

• Step 1: Arms slowly move up and down

• Step 2: Hands at chi or grounding point


THE EMODIED BRAIN:

The Brain: Developmental Neurobiology (0:01-‐28:19)

• Epigenetics: How experience changes gene expression

• Temperament: The innate propensities of the nervous system to
respond in a certain way to internal and external stimuli

• As neurons fire together, they are more apt to wire together, building
neural networks of interconnected neurons and neural circuits

• Pruning: The removal of neural connections not being used, to allow
specialization: Supports differentiation

• Myelination: The strengthening of neural connections by the addition
of myelin: Supports linkage
The ESSENCE of Adolescence

ES Emotional Spark Active emotional response that influences reasoning and behavior
• Downside: Moodiness, irritability, sensitive emotional states
• Upside: Passion and energy
SE Social Engagement Driven toward peers and away from parents
• Downside: Risk of sacrificing personal values in exchange for
peer acceptance; total exclusion of adults
• Upside: Supportive relationships and development of lifelong
relationship skills
N Novelty Changes in the dopamine (reward) and limbic (evaluative) systems of
the brain
• Downside: Risk of injury and death highest during this time
• Upside: Courage to explore and leave the familiarity and
certainty of the home and enter the larger world
CE Creative Exploration Mental pushing away from the “status quo;” new perspectives and
ways of thinking; imagination
• Downside: Potential to feel out of place, disoriented, disillusion
• Upside: Innovations, creativity, and the ability to adapt


How the Brain Grows and Changes (28:20-‐41:00)

General Lifespan Changes in Neural Function and Structure
Synaptic Modulation The formation and modulation of neural synapses;
(Synaptogenesis) “Neurons that fire together, wire together”
Epigenetic Modulation The alteration of the control of gene expression—in this case via
(Epigenesis) experience and learning—that involves laying down of non-‐nucleic acid
molecules on top of genes (which are comprised of DNA—chains of
nucleic acids)
Neurogenesis The generation of new neurons from neural stem cells which divide and
can create new neurons early in life and especially in the hippocampus
throughout the lifespan
Myelination The laying down of a myelin sheath around interconnected nerve fibers,
leading to increased firing speed and enhanced coordination of neural
firing

SNAG: Increasing Integration

Stimulate
Neuronal

Activation
Growth

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Neuronal Growth
and Development (Intentionally left blank for note taking) (41:01-‐51:08)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:


Dr. Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain: The Brain in the Palm of Your Hand
(51:09-‐ 1:14:24)

• Ancient neural circuitry establishes patterns of reaction to threat:

The Four Fs of Brain Stem Reactivity
Fight
Flight
Freeze
Faint

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: The Brain
(1:14:25-‐1:40:59)


Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

RELATIONSHIPS, PART 1:

Relationships: Connection Across the Lifespan (0:01-‐19:00)

• Relationship: The sharing of energy and information flow

• Empathy vs. compassion

• Integration – the differentiation and linkage of parts of a system –
within the relationship is essential to understanding resonance, which
is different from mirroring or giving up your individual needs and
sense of differentiation

Presence, Attunement, Resonance, and Trust (PART): Verbal and Nonverbal
Communication (19:01-‐38:14)

The PART We Play in Relationships

Presence Openness; awareness of present
moment experience
Attunement Focus of attention on the internal
world of self or other
Resonance Being shaped by another

Trust A deep sense of openness and
reliability
• Connection refers to a process of mutual resonance occurring between two

individuals, leading to attunement and a sense of we


7 Basic Nonverbal Components Characteristics of
of Communication Energy Change
1. Eye Contact C Contours
2. Facial Expression L Location
3. Tone of Voice I Intensity (Amplitude)
4. Posture F Frequency
5. Gesture F Form
6. Timing
7. Intensity

Integrative Movement II: Steps 3 and 4 (38:15-‐44:46)

• Step 3: Giving with generosity and humility, and receiving with
gratitude and openness; embodied relational integration

• Step 4: Integrating me and we to create a sense of mwe; embodied
identity integration

PART: Presence (44:47-‐56:18)

• Presence is the portal to integration; an open, receptive awareness of the
unfolding of moment-to-moment experience; the opposite of presence is
unintentional mind-wandering
PART: Attunement (56:18-1:20:18)
• Attunement: Focusing of attention on the internal world of another

(interpersonal attunement) or the self (internal attunement)
• Mirror neurons may be automatically activated in response to perceptual

input and involve the anticipation of another’s motor action that can be
called the SIMA process:
SIMA = Sensory Implication of Motor Action

• SIMA enables the representation of another’s intention and then the
two processes of behavioral imitation and inner simulation, enabling
resonance


PART: Resonance (1:20:19-‐1:36:32)

• Attunement to another’s subjective experience – interpersonal
attunement – allows for two individuals to resonate with one another –
to feel felt by each other

• As two people become joined as a larger whole in the process of
resonance, the individual, differentiated nature of each person is not
lost

RELATIONSHIPS, PART 2:

PART: Trust (0:01-‐16:17)

• States of safety vs. states of threat

• Trust creates a state of receptivity as the social engagement system is
turned on and receptivity is diminished

OATS = Others And the Self

OWN = Observing, Witnessing, and Narrating

• Centralized, default-mode processing involves a midline system of the
brain, including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), that can be described
as the OWN circuit, which focuses on OATS
• Integration allows us to differentiate streams of energy, freeing us from

default-mode processing being over-differentiated and dominating
experience in the moment

Relationships: Rupture and Repair (16:18-‐27:18)

• Ruptures are inevitable in relationships, and they can be thought of as
opportunities for repair and the deepening of connection

Relationships: Kindness, Compassion, and Empathy (27:19-‐49:09)

• Empathy has many facets, including feeling the feelings of another,
perspective-‐taking, and cognitive understanding

• Compassion: The way in which we perceive the suffering of another,
imagine how to help, and then take action to alleviate the suffering


• Kindness: Acting with no expectation of getting something in return;
honoring and supporting one another’s vulnerabilities

Relationships: Forgiveness (49:10-‐56:46)

• Forgiveness can be thought of as giving up all hope of a better past;
acceptance

Relationships: Reflective Dialogues (56:47-‐1:13:16)

• Mindsight tools help cultivate the ability to communicate through a
receptive state, rather than a state of reactivity

• Learning to SIFT through our experiences supports reflective dialogues
and integrated relationships

Reflective Dialogue
Sensations
Images

Feelings
Thoughts

ATTACHMENT, PART 1:

The 4 Ss of Attachment (0:01-‐22:02)

• Attachments help us survive and thrive in infancy and childhood, and these
attachment patterns become a working model for future relationships
The 4 Ss of Building a
Secure Attachment
Seen
Safe
Soothed
Secure
The Field of Attachment Research (22:02-36:42)
• Attachment theory and attachment research
• Alloparenting refers to a shared, collaborative child-rearing approach that

human being evolved to engage in, in which the child may form attachment
relationships to several trusted care-giving figures

Strategies of Attachment (36:43-1:14:54)
• Attachment categories are context dependent, describing patterns and

tendencies within a relationship

• Secure attachment patterns vs. non-‐secure attachment patterns

• Organized attachment patterns vs. disorganized attachment patterns

ATTACHMENT, PART 2:

Secure Attachment (0:01-‐36:36)

• Seen in 55-‐65% of the non-‐clinical US population

• Observations made in the Infant Strange Situation: The child is able to
connect with the caregiver as a safe-‐base for exploration: The caregiver
provides reliable safety, soothes the child in times of distress, and
appropriately responds to the child’s needs and nonverbal cues

The 4 S’s of Healthy Attachment
Seen • The child feels that his or her needs are being accurately
perceived by a caregiver
• The mind of the child is seen beneath behavior
Safe • The child feels protected from harm

• The caregiver is not a source of terror
Soothed • The child is reliably comforted and calmed by the caregiver in
times of stress, and ruptures are readily repaired
Secure • The child feels able to explore his or her environment, relying
on the caregiver as a safe-‐base

Secure Attachment: The Infant Strange Situation (36:37-‐58:11)

• Observations made in the Infant Strange Situation: The child is able to
connect with the caregiver as a safe-‐base for exploration: The caregiver
provides reliable safety, soothes the child in times of distress, and
appropriately responds to the child’s needs and nonverbal cues


Secure Attachment: The Adult Attachment Interview (58:12-‐1:42:43)

• How a parent has made sense of her or his own attachment experiences is
the best predictor of how that parent’s child will be attached to them

• A specific set of 20 questions that explore qualities of connection between
the adult when a child and his or her caregiver(s)
• Adult narrative as observed in the AAI: Coherent autobiographical

narrative

ATTACHMENT, PART 3:

Avoidant Attachment (0:01-‐38:11)


• Observed in the Infant Strange Situation: Distant emotional connection.
The child learns not to depend on the caregiver for comfort. He or she may
even detach from awareness of his or her bodily and emotional sensations.

• Adult narrative as observed in the AAI: “Dismissing” stance that past
relationships do not affect the self; difficulty retrieving autobiographic
memory

Ambivalent Attachment (38:12-‐57:18)


• Observed in the Infant Strange Situation: The child feels uncertain as to
whether his or her own needs will be met by the caregiver because the
caregiver is inconsistent, unreliable, and – at times – emotionally intrusive

• Adult narrative as observed in the AAI: Incoherent narrative that is often
filled with intrusion of “leftover” emotional experiences in a preoccupied
stance

Disorganized Attachment (57:19-‐1:49:08)


• Terror of the attachment figure leads to the activation of two opposing
neural processes at the same time:

• Limbic system: Drive to move toward caregiver for protection


• Brainstem circuit: Drive to move aware from source of terror

• This results in a single person, in one body, having two conflicting
drives: one to move both toward and the other to move away from the
caregiver at the same time, creating a “fear without solution,” or a
biological paradox

• Adult narrative as observed in the AAI: Disoriented/unresolved loss or
trauma in narrative due to the loss of orientation during narrative
output around specific issues of trauma or loss

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Relationships,
Attachment, and Interpersonal Connection (1:49:09-‐2:28:49)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: CONSCIOUSNESS, PART 1:

The 9 Domains of Integration (0:01-‐7:13)

Integration of Consciousness (7:14-‐ 1:05:11)

• Consciousness: the process or ability of the experience of knowing, or
“awarenessing,” which includes a prime of subjective experience
• Knowing: the process or experience of knowing

• The known: the entity that is filling awareness


Mindsight Tripod

Presence = Pre + Sense

Integrative Movement III: Step 5 and Step 6 (1:05:12-‐1:17:36)

• Step 5: Integrating a sense of what’s practical and what’s possible –
ideas and ideals

• Step 6: Vertically stretching energy out

Awareness of Breath: Mindsight Lens (1:17:37-‐1:46:25)

• Mapping of the in-‐breath and out-‐breath; a SIMA matching


Introduction to Dr. Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Practice (0:01-‐20:12)

• The Wheel of Awareness practice differentiates the process of knowing
from the known, and this integration of consciousness cultivates change as
we systematically link differentiated parts with the focus of attention and
adaptively flow through experiences
• The hub represents knowing
• The rim represents the known
• The spoke represents attention, the

streaming of energy and information
flow that, in this case, is focal
attention – happening within
awareness



The Wheel of Awareness Practice (20:13-‐1:01:17)

• Create a quiet space for this guided practice

Integration of Consciousness: The Science of the Wheel of Awareness
Practice (1:01:18-‐1:37:28)

• When we intentionally focus awareness on the unfolding of moment-‐
to-‐moment experience, we come to realize that mental experience is
not the totality of reality, nor is it permanent

• There are many thoughts and feelings beyond those we are aware of,
and they come and go

• Integrating consciousness may be at the heart of other practices as
well, such as those that develop mindful awareness

• Through mindfulness, we strengthen the capacity for emotional
regulation, conscious decision making, insight, and empathy, bringing
more balance, harmony, and well-‐being into daily life


The Plane of Possibility (0:01-‐53:01)

• Quantum aspects of reality are based on probabilities, not certainties;
mindfulness practices, like the wheel of awareness practice, strengthen
our abilities to be consciously aware. Energy can be defined as the
capacity to do something, and a range of energy probabilities from
near 0% to 100% exists

• 100% probability =
Certainty; these are peaks of
actualization

• Near 0% probability =
Uncertainty, or infinite
possibility, which is full of
potentialities but devoid of
realized actualities; in this
way, it is both empty and full

• Plateaus of probability constrain these options as mood or intention;
specific thoughts or emotions or memories are depicted as peaks of
activation—the transformation of possibility into actuality; sub-‐peak
values reveal thinking, emoting or remembering

• One hypothesis drawn from first-‐person accounts of the Wheel of
Awareness practice: the knowing of awareness arises when the energy
probability distribution curve position is in the infinite plane of
possibility – free from top-‐down influence and, instead, a source in
openness and the source of possibilities
Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: The Integration of

Consciousness (53:02-1:23:17)
Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: BILATERAL, PART 1:

Bilateral Integration (0:01-‐17:13)

• Linking the differentiated parts of the left and right hemispheres via
the corpus callosum to make sense of, and find meaning in, an
experience

• The cortex in general, both the right and left hemispheres, has columns
from which information is constructed; some anatomic analyses
suggest that the right hemispheric columns integrate more
horizontally, across columns, allowing for cross-‐column construction
to be more interconnected, while the left hemispheric columns
integrate vertically, creating the deep construction of information and

the experience of analysis—down-‐breaking—of information within a

set of more specific columnar neural processes

Bilateral Integration: Asymmetry of Structure and Function (17:14-‐42:09)

• The right mode, which is dominant for nonverbal communication and
autobiographical processing and memory, develops first

• The left mode, which mediates more linear, linguistic, logic-‐based
processing and memory, develops later

Bilateral Development (42:10-‐1:15:22)

• Right hemispheric mode develops earlier and includes more holistic
processing, such as nonverbal signals, representation of the interior of
the body, autobiographical memory, and possibly stress response, and
plays a primary role in sensing the mind of others

• Left hemispheric mode develops later and includes more linear
processing, such as linguistic language, logic, analysis, and factual
memory
Two Layers of Memory

Explicit Memory Similar to • Episodic: Specific personal
declarative experience, dominant in the
memory that can be right hemisphere
stated in words • Semantic: Factual information,
dominant in the left hemisphere
Implicit Memory Similar to non-‐ • Perception
declarative • Bodily Sensations
memory • Emotion
• Behavioral/Motor Response
• Generalizations as Schema or
Mental Models
• Priming

Bilaterality and Learning (1:15:23-‐1:27:13)

• Both hemispheres are important and contribute to creativity,
connection, and learning


DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: BILATERAL, PART 2:

Attachment and Bilaterality (0:01-‐20:31)

• Needs and feelings may be correlated to right mode, and switching to left
mode dominant processing may be a way of adapting to difficult relational
contexts

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Bilateral
Integration (20:32-‐45:45)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:06:04-‐1:06:08)

Integrative Movement IV: Step 7 (1:06:09-‐1:13:29)

• Step 7: Bilateral movement of hands

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: VERTICAL:

Vertical Integration (0:01-‐42:54)


• Awareness of the body, and includes the reinterpretation of physiological
stress reaction

• “Dorsal dive” refers to our survival reaction to faint – the polyvagal theory;
fainting, or feigning death, is one of the responses mammals are
neurologically wired to have, along with freeze, fight, and flee

• No/Yes Exercise

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Vertical Integration
(42:55-‐1:01:38)
Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:01:39-‐1:11:03)

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: MEMORY, PART 1:

Memory Integration (0:01-‐19:06)
Stages of Memory

1 Encoding Internal or External stimuli translated into electrochemical energy, resulting
in neural firing
2 Storage Neural firing results in temporary, chemical changes or long term, structural
changes in neural networking
3 Retrieval Reactivation of specific neural networks, which is associated with
hippocampal activity if explicit memory involved


Implicit Memory (19:07-‐49:31)
Two Layers of Memory

Explicit Memory Similar to • Episodic: Specific personal
declarative experience, dominant in the
memory that can be right hemisphere
stated in words • Semantic: Factual information,
dominant in the left hemisphere
Implicit Memory Similar to non-‐ • Perception
declarative • Bodily Sensations
memory • Emotion
• Behavioral/Motor Response
• Generalizations as Schema or
Mental Models
• Priming

• Neuronal foundations of mental representations result in a generalization,
or schema – a mental model – of experience, which influences the ways
perception of ongoing experiences in the future will be shaped

• While schemas allow us to make sense of experiences quickly and
efficiently, they also affect the way we experience the world through non-‐
conscious assumptions and expectations

• Ecphoric sensation is the feeling that a recalled memory is coming from the
past; all retrieval involves awareness; not all retrieval involving awareness
involves an ecphoric sensation

• Implicit memory, when retrieved in its pure form, can be fully in
consciousness and yet not have an ecphoric sensation; therefore, stating
“implicit memory is synonymous with unconscious memory” is not really
accurate

The hippocampus can be usurped by focal attention being divided during
•
dissociation and also by the stress hormone cortisol that can inhibit
explicit encoding of information via the hippocampus; however, cortisol
does not inhibit implicit encoding – and the adrenaline secreted during
trauma can enhance implicit encoding

Memory and Forgetting (49:32-‐1:08:55)

• Memory integration and cortical consolidation are the memory processes
in which implicit memories are first brought into consciousness and then
stored in a new explicit form, altering both the nervous system structure
and the subjective experience connected to that memory


• With consolidation, this newly processed explicit memory can ultimately
move from long-‐term storage —hippocampally dependent—to permanent
storage, becoming free of the hippocampus for retrieval and allegedly
becoming woven into the cortical narratives of our lives

Learning and Unlearning (1:08:56-‐1:31:55)

• Engram: A change in neural structure due to encoding that correlates to a
change in memory; a neural net profile

• Using a dual-‐focus of attention, therapists can help clients focus one stream
of attention on the original engram while also focusing a stream of
attention to new learning, making a new neural configuration

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: MEMORY, PART 2:

Forgetting and Remembering (0:01-‐25:23)

• From an IPNB framework, repression can be thought of as the automatic
blockage from access to retrieval of an item encoded in stored memory; it
may be preceded by suppression – the intentional act of forgetting

• Suppression refer to putting energy into actively preventing retrieval;
something originally accessible can become inaccessible, whereas in
dissociation, a memory is not explicitly available for retrieval

Memory: Emotion, Anticipation, and States (25:24-‐52:54)

• The brain is an anticipation machine; the mind creates memory for the
future – or prospective memory

• The brain is a pattern detector, seeking out predictable sequences or
patterns of perceptual input

• Memory is also influenced by emotion – a shift in integration – and overall
states of mind

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Memory
(52:55-‐1:13:09)
Conceptualization:


Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:13:10-‐1:23:19)

Integrative Movement V: Step 8 (1:23:20-‐1:31:12)

• Step 8: Tides rolling in and out; an embodied memory integration

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: NARRATIVE, PART 1:

Narrative Integration (0:01-‐37:41)

• Narrative refers to an extraction of meaning, often through engaged
reflection

• Stories play a developmental and teaching role, as they allow us to have an
experience, to share through trust and connection, and to learn from our
own and other’s experiences

• Jerome Bruner highlights two aspects of narrative:

• Landscape of action is the content, or what happens in the outer,
visible world

• Landscape of consciousness is the internal state and mental
processes that coincide with the event in the internal world, often
invisible to the eye alone

• A story is the way in which a person makes sense of violations to canonical
expectations (expectations learned from prior experience), which is then
expressed in the linear telling of a sequence of events with a landscape of
action and a landscape of consciousness described in the narrative


Trauma and Narrative Resolution (55:42-‐1:21:01)

• How a parent has made sense of her or his own attachment experiences is
the best predictor of how that parent’s child’s attachment will unfold in
relationship to that particular parent

• We can shape our own narratives through neuroplasticity because of the
emergent, self-‐organizing property of the mind: the way in which energy
flows through the nervous system influences subjective experience and
also recursively alters the nervous system itself

• We can’t change the past, but we can change the way we make sense of the
past and how that past then influences us in the present and future

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: NARRATIVE, PART 2:

Self and Evolving Narrative (0:01-‐21:16)

• We can begin to see how the self is not singular but more of a MWe (me +
we) with a personal mindscape within and a shared mindsphere between

Narrative: Reframing Stress, Grit, and Mindset (21:17-‐47:59)

• While a fixed mindset views a difficult situation as a threat, a growth
mindset instead, views a difficult situation as a challenge and an
opportunity to grow

• Passion, purpose, and persistence result in grit

• Today, the concept of stress has been generalized and broadly categorized
into good vs. bad stress; high quantities and durations of stress are
thought to be correlated with negative health outcomes, and the stress
hormone cortisol is viewed as detrimental to health

• The physiological reaction of stress is not bad, and it is not good; it is ,
most often, what we make of it

• Using the concept of integration as the foundation for reframing stress –
even when initial physiological markers of stress remain the same – we
can begin to regulate and self-‐organize in a way that creates adaptive
coping skills and harmony

• A meaningful life is inevitably a stressful life, as stress is the physiological
state when something important is at stake


Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Narrative
Integration (48:00-‐1:04:17)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:04:18-‐1:19:14)

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: STATE, PART 1:

State Integration (0:01-‐10:24)

• A state is a way of being, and there are many different facets of being

• Self-‐states repeat over time and build the foundations of “who we are”

• Internal state integration refers to coherence within a given state

• Between state integration refers to collaboration across states

• Taking a multiplicity view of self, rather than divided states of the self or a
view that the self needs to be unitary and without differentiated aspects;
embracing the many facets of “self”


Qualities of State of Mind (10:25-‐31:02)

The A-‐B-‐C-‐D-‐E of State of Mind
Associations
Beliefs
Cognitive patterns
Developmental period
Emotions

State Integration: Layers, Aspects, and Parts (31:03-‐58:12)

• While Internal Family Systems theory (IFS) identifies specific “parts” of
the self, IPNB views the differentiated states of a person as being more like
aspects

• Hypothesis: If mindsight – even with high Adverse Childhood Experience
Scale (ACES) scores – is applied to make sense of and extract meaning
from traumatic experience, physiological outcomes – such as immune
system function and hemispheric integration -‐ may be altered in a positive
direction

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: STATE, PART 2:

State Integration: Dissociation (0:01-‐1:15:46)

• Dissociation, a fundamental process that involves the impediment to
integration of psychological functions and has been shown to be an outcome of
disorganized attachment earlier in life

• Dissociation may be a risk factor for developing PTSD if exposed to
overwhelming and life-threatening events

• Dissociative barriers isolate the cluster of neural firing that embed specific
behavioral responses, emotions, bodily sensations, mental models, and
priming, resulting in a relatively autonomous, dissociated state of mind
that may have enduring features

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: State Integration
(1:15:47-‐1:38:27)
Conceptualization:


Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:38:28-‐1:58:55)

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: INTERPERSONAL:

Interpersonal Integration (0:01-‐29:17)

• Sharing of one’s own internal experience with others, which provides
opportunity for connection and empathic attunement and the source of
the experience of “feeling felt”

Romantic Relationships (29:18-‐1:01:17)

• While romantic love involves biological systems such as serotonin,
oxytocin, and the HPA axis and sexual hormones, dopamine – a central
neurotransmitter for motivational circuits related to drive and satisfaction
– may be a key aspect of romance (see the work of Helen Fisher, Ph.D.)

• In a sexual context, resonance refers to two individuals consensually
bringing their sexual drives together, becoming coupled as one; two
independent systems influence each other, but do not become each other,
resulting in a form of integration

• An ideal love relationship would involve romantic love, erotic love, and
attachment love, as each involves a different form of integration

Interlocking States (31:03-‐1:22:32)

• Interlocking states occur when the adapted attachment strategy of each
partner triggers similar reactions that are enduring obstacles to
integration and a sense of well-‐being

• While you may be drawn to someone who offers what you may have been
missing in terms of childhood needs, both individuals can use this
relationship as a foundation to grow and create integration – honoring
differences and supporting each other’s vulnerabilities as they come

together and connect; within the relationship, an earned secure

attachment can emerge, supporting healthy growth and long-‐lasting
connection

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Interpersonal
Integration (1:22:33-‐1:40:49)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:

Treatment:

Case Example (1:40:50-‐1:51:36)

Integrative Movement VI: Steps 9 and 10 (1:51:37-‐2:02:32)

• Step 9: Embodied ocean currents that represent state integration

• Step 10: An embodied integration of consciousness, expanding and
contracting energy, as the Thai Chi ball represents a parallel to the Wheel
of Awareness, with its central hub and outer rim

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: TEMPORAL:

Temporal Integration (0:01-‐20:54)

• Facing the existential challenges of the mind’s capacity to map a sense of
time—so that issues of longing for certainty, permanence, and immortality
are linked to the reality of life’s uncertainty, transience, and mortality

• Time also has the quality of an arrow of time for large (macrostate)
assemblies like thoughts, memories, and emotions, but may also have the

arrow-‐free qualities for microstate configurations that may apply to the
experience of awareness itself

• Entanglement, or non-‐locality, refers to the finding that changing the state
of one entity instantaneously changes the patterns of a coupled
(“entangled”) entity, like a paired electron in a physically distinct location;
this suggests an interconnectedness that “acts at a distance”—this is not
considered a force (it moves faster than the speed of light), rather it is
considered a coupling of related or connected entities of the universe and
that physical distance or “separation in space” is actually not what it
seems—these interconnections reveal that space may not be what we
perceive it to be—and so a space-‐time block may have four dimensions
embedded in it, making the interconnections with the now proven aspect
of non-‐locality or entanglement make sense from a four-‐dimensional view

Time: Newtonian and Quantum Levels (20:55-‐53:31)

• Quantum and Newtonian properties may be experienced differently with
distinct mental processes, such as the difference between the knowing of
awareness and the knowns of awareness—the objects of consciousness

• Conscious observation: The act of observation of a photon – the
fundamental element of light energy – “collapses the wave function,”
reducing the state function: a photon can be a particle or acting like a
probability distribution, like a wave

• The previously more commonly held Copenhagen Interpretation of
quantum physics suggests that the act of being aware – conscious
observation – changes energy patterns by altering the probability function
from a wave and into a certainty (acting like a particle, no longer like a
wave)

• Many physicists hold differing views, so this is a matter of heated debate

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Temporal
Integration (53:32-‐1:15:31)

Conceptualization:

Assessment:


Treatment:

Case Example (1:15:32-‐1:39:49)

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: IDENTITY:

Identity Integration (0:01-‐20:55)

• Sometimes dependent on the integration of the other eight domains, so
was previously called “transpirational integration,” or breathing-‐across
the other domains, the sense of who a person is can become more
integrated by holding a transcendent worldview – viewing the self as part
of a larger, connected system of people and planet – creating a sense of
MWe

• Cultural Evolution: The idea that a culture is changing over time through
changes in ideas that influence transformations in communication within
individuals of a community
Personal Identity (20:56-‐32:49)

• Becoming a part of a “larger humanity”, not merely a separate “me,” nor
lost in membership as a “we,” but having an integrated sense of MWe
Identity Integration: Belonging to a We (32:50-‐58:57)

• Example of the role of gender and sexuality as identity
• Primary identity of gender and sexual orientation are independent domains,

and both of these domains can exist on a continuum of being

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: Identity Integration
(58:58-‐1:05:01)
Conceptualization:

Assessment:


Treatment:

Case Example (1:05:02-‐1:11:25)

Bringing Your Interpersonal Neurobiology Framework and Mindsight
Approach Into Life and Clinical Practice (1:11:26-‐1:38:08)

Mindsight Approach To Well-Being - Comprehensive Course Outline

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The

Mindsight Approach to Well-­‐Being: A Comprehensive Course in Interpersonal Neurobiology

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 1

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 2

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 3

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 4

MIND, PART 2:

Top-­‐Down Process Learned prior to current experience; influences

The Three Components of Mindsight

Integration: The differentiation or specialization, and, ultimately, linkage of

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 6

THE EMODIED BRAIN:

The ESSENCE of Adolescence

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 7

How the Brain Grows and Changes (28:20-­‐41:00)

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 8

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 9

• Connection refers to a process of mutual resonance occurring between two

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 10

PART: Attunement (56:18-1:20:18)

• Attunement: Focusing of attention on the internal world of another

• Mirror neurons may be automatically activated in response to perceptual

SIMA = Sensory Implication of Motor Action

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 11

PART: Resonance (1:20:19-­‐1:36:32)

• Integration allows us to differentiate streams of energy, freeing us from

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 12

The Field of Attachment Research (22:02-36:42)

• Attachment theory and attachment research

• Alloparenting refers to a shared, collaborative child-rearing approach that

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 13

Strategies of Attachment (36:43-1:14:54)

• Attachment categories are context dependent, describing patterns and

The 4 S’s of Healthy Attachment

Safe • The child feels protected from harm

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 14

Secure Attachment: The Adult Attachment Interview (58:12-­‐1:42:43)

• Adult narrative as observed in the AAI: Coherent autobiographical

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 15

• Knowing: the process or experience of knowing

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 16

• The hub represents knowing

• The rim represents the known

• The spoke represents attention, the

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 17

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 18

Clinical Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment: The Integration of

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 19

the experience of analysis—down-­‐breaking—of information within a

Two Layers of Memory

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 20

DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION: BILATERAL, PART 2:

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 21

Stages of Memory

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 22

Implicit Memory (19:07-­‐49:31)

Two Layers of Memory

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 23

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 24

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 25

Trauma and Narrative Resolution (55:42-­‐1:21:01)

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 26

© Mind Your Brain, Inc. 2017 27

Mindsight Approach to Well-‐Being: A Comprehensive Course in Interpersonal Neurobiology

Top-‐Down Process Learned prior to current experience; influences

How the Brain Grows and Changes (28:20-‐41:00)

PART: Resonance (1:20:19-‐1:36:32)

Secure Attachment: The Adult Attachment Interview (58:12-‐1:42:43)

the experience of analysis—down-‐breaking—of information within a

Implicit Memory (19:07-‐49:31)

Trauma and Narrative Resolution (55:42-‐1:21:01)

Qualities of State of Mind (10:25-‐31:02)