i need someon do my homwork

read the chapters2 and write a one page critique describing what was most helpful anything with which you disagreed and overall effectiveness of the chapters 

write two questions that the chapter raises for you put answer with that questions

apa staul

dedlina after 12 hours 

Chapter 3 Neuroscience and Brief Therapy Recent neurological research regarding how therapy changes the brain has significant implications for the Brief Therapist. Whenever you have helped your client create positive change in her life, she has altered her brain by rewiring it. The term for this is neuroplasticity. Ivey & Ivey (2007, p. 25) define neuroplasticity as “the brain develops new neural connections throughout the lifespan and changes in response to new situations or experiences in the environment.” They continue by writing, “An example of neuroplasticity is that both you and your client may learn, change, and develop new neural connections as a result of your interaction. Successful interviewing and counseling help clients develop new and useful connections.” Badenoch (2008, pp. 10-12) states that when a person correctly labels an emotion, blood flow to the amygdala slows down thus calming the amygdala. She continues by stating, “We can imagine that if the change of blood flow were repeated, an accumulating modification of brain structure would occur as synaptic connections strengthened with repetition. In this way,

a new state of mind can gradually become an enduring trait. This kind of evidence for the brain’s capacity to change can give us a healthy respect for how much impact therapeutic experiences may have on minds struggling with the fear and sadness of painful histories.” Cozolino (2010, p. 339) writes, “The implications of the power of the placebo effect to change the brain are profound.” He presents a table entitled “Leveraging the Placebo Effect in Medical Treatment” which gives several points that the medical profession would do well to follow. I want to mention the points that pertain to Brief Therapy. He states that you should determine what treatments your patient believes in. In Brief Therapy, you recognize that the client is the authority and you follow her lead. You never push her in a direction she doesn’t want to go. Cozolino also states that you should be certain that you believe in the treatment you are prescribing. This is certainly true in Brief Therapy. The stronger you believe in the treatment and the more excited you are about it, the more the client is likely to buy into it and therefore be successful using it. A third recommendation that Cozolino makes is to be sure that you inform the patient about what she can expect. Because you believe in the power of Brief Therapy and expect positive outcomes, as you express this to the client, her confidence grows in the treatment. The more confident she is, the more likely she will be successful. A fourth recommendation is to deliver treatment in a warm and caring way. In the chapter on “The Counseling Relationship” I emphasized the importance of building a relationship of trust by being empathic and genuine. The successful therapist knows that a trusting relationship is essential for effective therapy to occur. His fifth recommendation is to listen and provide empathy and understanding. This goes along with the fourth recommendation. You must listen to the verbal and nonverbal communication of the client and respond indicating that you are making every effort to understand the client. This is why you must be careful not to move too fast toward resolution before you have communicated that you understand the client. Finally, his last recommendation is to touch the patient. I realize this is debatable and some would say it is not debatable, that under no circumstances should you touch the client. However, based on the brain research we have, it seems that touch is important for human well-being. You should be very careful. Be certain that it is okay with the client that you touch her and be certain that your touch is always appropriate. Touch can be a powerful healer when used appropriately. Definitions and functions of areas of the brain are important to understand if you are to understand how Brief Therapy affects the brain. The following are the terms that are important for our discussion. Amygdala. Ivey & Ivey (2007, p. 497) state that the amygdala is, “A key part of the limbic system within the brain stem that has an important part in emotion and motivation. Traumatic and fear memories are located here and may override positive emotions.” Because this is true, it is important to know how to change this so that positive emotions are not overridden. Badenoch (2008, pp. 200-204) suggests one way of doing this is to talk with the client about how the brain works and help them become aware of the amygdala. By talking with the amygdala in a safe place, it can begin to calm down and function differently. Another way of accomplishing a change is to change the memory by creating a new memory of how the client wishes the event had occurred or changing the power of the memory by changing the sub-modalities of the picture, sound or sensation. This is discussed in future chapters. Brain stem. Ivey & Ivey (2007, p. 497) state that the brain stem is, “One of three major sections of the brain. Near the spinal cord, it controls involuntary actions. It is the seat of arousal, attention, and much of emotion.” Badenoch (2008, p. 14) writes, “The brainstem is the only area of the brain that is fully wired up and ready for action before birth in full-term babies.

It is genetically primed to control many aspects of body functioning that happen without our having to attend to them: respiration, vessel constriction, sleep cycles, and some aspects of the fight-flight-freeze responses, for example.” This is helpful information in working with someone who has anger issues and has difficulty controlling herself when she is angry. By explaining that her behavior comes from an innate part of her brain as a natural reaction, we can then teach her how to stop when she feels angry and allow a more rational part of her brain to take over. By practicing this over and over, it becomes second nature to her so that now when she becomes angry, she responds in a calmer way. This information can also be used to give a client hope that she can heal herself. Using the information on vessel constriction, you can point out how when she cuts herself, her body knows automatically what to do to stop the bleeding by forming a scab. If her mind/body is smart enough to do this, then it is likely that it is smart enough to resolve the issue she is presently facing (with proper help). Cerebellum. Ivey & Ivey (2007, p. 497) state that the cerebellum is “One of three major sections of the brain. Important for balance and motor coordination, it also participates in language processing and selective attention.” Selective attention is important. For example, when one is feeling anxious, what would happen if she chose to pay attention to something other than her anxiety? If you teach her to consciously focus on something pleasurable to the point of losing herself in the pleasurable experience, what would happen to the anxiety? Cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is comprised of four lobes – the occipital, parietal, frontal and temporal. Part of the frontal lobe is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Badenoch (2008, p. 18) states, “It is considered the home of working memory, the ‘chalkboard of the mind.’ When we attend to something, the information is brought into conscious awareness where we can play with it, adding new energy and information to reshape the memory before it is re-stored. This process is of particular relevance for us because when our patients bring painful memories into consciousness, we can add the interpersonal energy and information of comfort and understanding, creating new representations of a caring other and providing the impetus for increased integration. Then, when these memories are sent again to long-term or permanent storage, they will be both more integrated and more filled with soothing messages.” This is why it is harmful to only have the client remember the event over and over. If no changes are incorporated in the event, then it becomes a stronger and stronger negative memory. Hippocampus. This part of the brain is important for learning and memory retrieval. “It assembles bits of information into explicit memories, and also plays a key role in retrieving information encoded in the past – in other words, in the process of remembering.” Pliszka (2003, pp. 92-101) points out that memories are not stored in the hippocampus, it merely retrieves them. He states that if a person is asked to visualize his house, the same parts of the brain will activate as if he were actually standing in front of his house looking at it. This is an important point for Brief Therapists. It implies that the brain doesn’t know the difference between an actual event and the memory of the event. This helps explain why someone can become anxious or frightened just remembering an event. By thinking about the event in a different way or changing some of the facts of the memory, we change the experience. If we do this often enough the change becomes permanent. I ask clients to see (or hear) the memory, then change it so that it is no longer pain producing. I then have them do this five times as fast as they can. By doing so, they have changed the pathways in their brain so that they can no longer remember the original experience. They have permanently changed the memory. Hemispheres. The left hemisphere is linear, logical, linguistic, and literal thinking (Siegel, 2007, p. 301). Positive emotions such as happiness and joy are located here. Evidence suggests

that experiencing positive emotions requires negative emotions to be absent or at least controlled; therefore, building a positive frame of wellness seems particularly relevant to personal growth (Ivey & Ivey, 2007, p. 497). Positive Psychology becomes relevant. The more you can help clients focus on positive experiences rather than negative experiences the more effective you will be. The right hemisphere is holistic, imagery-based, nonverbal and emotional/ social processing (Siegel, 2007, p. 301). It synthesizes observations into a general impression (Ivey & Ivey, 2007, p. 497). These two hemispheres cannot speak to each other easily. One of the ways to help them integrate is through meditation (Siegel, 2007, pp. 301-307). Mindfulness is an excellent Brief Therapy approach to accomplish this. Neurons. “Nerve cells that make up the central nervous system; they store and transmit information” (Ivey & Ivey, 2007, p. 497). The brain of an adult has billions of neurons. These have synaptic connections. Communication between neurons is facilitated by neurotransmitters which carry messages that increase or decrease electrical activity in the postsynaptic neuron. Increases and decreases can have a dramatic impact on thought, mood, behavior, and relational style. When neurons fire together they create a memory. When they fire together they tend to wire together (Badenoch, 2008, pp. 7-10). Therefore an event that occurs when you are feeling happy will be stored differently than the same event occurring when you are angry. The memory is changed or affected by the context in which it is remembered. In other words, every time a client remembers a certain event the memory is affected by the context of the memory. This is important information for Brief Therapists. Depending on the environment you create for the client and how you respond to the painful memory of the client, you may decrease or increase the pain of the memory. This gives you a brief overview of the brain and how therapy affects it. We know that the brain affects mood. For example, serotonin affects our mood. Low levels of serotonin causes one’s mood to drop. You can change your serotonin level by how you think. Sit in a dark room, thinking negative thoughts and your serotonin levels will drop, therefore causing your mood to drop. Do this long enough and often enough and the bad mood becomes chronic. You can take drugs to raise the serotonin level, thus helping you to feel better. You can also think happy thoughts and by doing so long enough and often enough you will raise your serotonin levels (Bien, 2006, p. 112). This is important for you to know. Your brain chemistry affects how you feel. How you think and behave affects your brain chemistry.