Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

Archive for the 'How the Brain influences our lives' Category

Dec 30 2009

What Are Mirror Neurons?

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, LGAT/Large group awareness trainings

Understanding the function of mirror neurons helps us understand why others’ intense emotional catharsis during large group awareness programs is such a powerful experience for those witnessing.

In many ways, it is like the witness is also experiencing the same powerful emotional “remembering.”

This also leads us to explore the potential for retraumatization of witnesses during these experiences. One never really knows what might trigger someone’s trauma memories. If the context in which the memory surfaces is not safe, there is a risk of retruamatization.
Here is another link to a great article on mirror neurons.

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Nov 24 2009

The Role of Mirror Neurons in Empathy, Mind Reading, and Language Learning

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, Research, Build the Life You Deserve

Read an absolutely fascinating (if you’re interested in mirror neurons! article about the importance of mirror neurons.

Read the article here.

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Nov 23 2009

The Neural Bases of Empathic Accuracy: An Article by Psychology Professors Kevin Oschner and Niall Bolger, graduate student Jamil Zaki, and Research Assistant Jochen Weber at Columbia University Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 2009

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, Ethics, Cognitive Therapy, Research, Build the Life You Deserve

A Columbia University research project using functional MRI scanning has mapped the two brain systems responsible for empathic accuracy, the parietal and premotor cortex.

These two brain systems help humans understand the intentions of simple gestures, interpret the meaning of those gestures and place them into context.

The researchers used a group of volunteers (objects) to talk about emotional events in their lives while being videotaped. Later, these volunteers watched themselves on video and evaluated whether they felt positively or negatively while talking about these live events.

Then, a second group of volunteers (perceivers) watched the same videotapes and were asked to evaluate the positive or negative experience of the initial volunteers as they described their life events while also hooked up to functional MRI scanning devices to measure which brain systems were activated.
When the perceivers were accurate about the emotional experience, the same brain systems, the parietal and premotor cortex were activated.

Interestingly, when the perceivers were wrong, a third brain system was activated that involves the control and management of one’s own feelings.

This suggested to the researchers that a persons attention to their own feelings may cause them to miss the gestures and other behaviors linked to the feelings of others.

Read the summary of the study here.

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Nov 17 2009

Empathy: Will a Monkey In A Research Project Pull A Chain To Get Food Or Starve Himself Because Pulling The Chain Also Causes Another Monkey To Experience Electric Shocks?

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, Research, Build the Life You Deserve

Monkeys like to eat and drink like the rest of us, but the research results about the power of empathy are fascinating.

The monkeys starve themselves rather than subject other monkeys to experience the pain of electric shock.

Pretty remarkable and says a lot about why children go to great lengths to “please” their parents and families so early in life, especially if the parent is in some type of pain.

In their article, pubished online here, “Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases,” Stephanie Preston and Frans De Wall describe the research detailing the biological basis for empathy.

Humans, like other mammals, are hardwired to respond to other conspecific’s (same species) pain.

The authors offer a biological explanation of empathy, called the Perception-Action Model (p4), which states that “the attended perception of the object’s (person/entity) being observed) state automatically primes or generates the autonomic or somatic responses, unless unhibited.”

So, the monkey or human infant (subject) after about one years of age, has a biologically driven response to viewing the pain or emotional experiences of others (object).

Think about what this means to children growing up in very vulnerable families with mentally ill, substance abusing or just plain unhappy parents…

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Nov 09 2009

Limbic Resonance: Why Our Eyes Really Are the Windows to Our Souls

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, Help for Chicago Relationships/Marriages, Build the Life You Deserve

Just for a moment, remember the last time you gazed into your lovers eyes and felt the hot passion of love. Maybe your heart seemed to tingle, your face was flush, and you could tell that they really loved you and you loved them back.

This is called the physiology of love, or limbic resonance. And yes, all mammals (humans are mammals:) experience this incredible process.

When we look into each other’s eyes, a complex neurological process begins which enables us to really experience the non-verbal, unconscious sensations and feelings within the other person and project our own feelings back to them.

Call it the love gaze. I hope you have it with more than your loving cat or dog who are thrilled to see you when you get home!
Read more about it here and here.

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Nov 05 2009

Attachment, Psychological Influence and Mind Control

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, How the Brain influences our lives, Trauma & Abuse, Ethics, Violence research, Narcissism, LGAT/Large group awareness trainings, Torture

Would you stay in a sweat lodge where people around you are vomiting, passing out, and you are beginning to feel yourself losing consciousness?

It’s easy for us to say “no”, but people just as smart as us did not out in Arizona. Three of them died, and almost half of the other participants became very ill.

Mind control. These people weren’t taken into a room and hypnotized. They still had the ability to think and make decisions.

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Oct 12 2009

Listening

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, Inspiration, Education & Personal Growth, How the Brain influences our lives, Help for Chicago Relationships/Marriages, Cognitive Therapy, Research, Build the Life You Deserve

Practice makes perfect and helps train the brain…it all gets easier the more you do it.Turning down the volume of conversations will help too. We can hear each other pretty well, if we feel like raising our voices, it is likely a time for a time-out. Have a cup of tea, do some breathing, then come back later to the conversation.

When I do listening exercises in session with couples, it helpfsto reduce the levels of conflict and create a warmer space for them to be with each other. There is a little hope that things can get better at home.

At the end of the communication exercise, I ask couples to give each other feedback about what they liked about this new way of talking with each other.

Here are some of the things that couples say to each other:

“I liked the way you expressed your feelings so directly.”

“you listened carefully to what I was saying”

“I liked hearing you reflect back what I was saying to you”

“hearing my words reflected back gave me a chance to hear what I was saying…I could evaluate and clarify my words, so I could say what I really mean”

“when I was listening, I realized how much I would argue and try to win the debate, rather than really listen to what you were saying”

“I realized how much what I usually say is blaming…I am not really talking about what I think, feel and want…rather how much I try to make to blame for my unhappiness”

Using words connected to honest feelings is the only way to create an intimate relationship.

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Sep 03 2009

Avoid the pain: What we can learn from the Seligman research on dogs exposed to electric shock (Part 2)

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Stress Reduction, Counseling & Psychotherapy, Suicide, Alcohol and other Drug Abuse, How the Brain influences our lives, Trauma & Abuse, ACA/ACOA:Adult Children from Alcoholic Families, Attachment, Cognitive Therapy, Depression

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Sep 02 2009

Dogs, painful electric shocks, and explanatory style: What does the research tell us about feeling discouraged and helpless? (Part 1)

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Stress Reduction, Counseling & Psychotherapy, Suicide, How the Brain influences our lives, Parenting, Trauma & Abuse, Cognitive Therapy, Depression

It’s pretty simple. The research shows us that when people feel discouraged and helpless, they are more likely to become depressed. There are several landmark studies conducted by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier describing the phenomenon of learned helplessness using dogs and the effect of exposing the dogs to unpleasant electrical shocks while in a harness.

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May 16 2009

Psychotherapy Often Deals With Our Family History, But Does History Really Matter?

Published by Bill Martin, LCSW under Counseling & Psychotherapy, Inspiration, Education & Personal Growth, How the Brain influences our lives, Trauma & Abuse, ACA/ACOA:Adult Children from Alcoholic Families

Now is now and then is then. I hear this often in my work with clients. I understand their concern and try to help them determine the relevancy of their family history to their current life situation. This is called “family of origin” work within the field of family therapy. What does this work look like?

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Useful Information

Exploring counseling & psychotherapy, what works, and the research that supports it.
Bill Martin, LCSW, 1300 West Belmont #309, Chicago, Il 60657, 312-409-0632

Archive for the 'How the Brain influences our lives' Category

What Are Mirror Neurons?

The Role of Mirror Neurons in Empathy, Mind Reading, and Language Learning

The Neural Bases of Empathic Accuracy: An Article by Psychology Professors Kevin Oschner and Niall Bolger, graduate student Jamil Zaki, and Research Assistant Jochen Weber at Columbia University Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 2009

Empathy: Will a Monkey In A Research Project Pull A Chain To Get Food Or Starve Himself Because Pulling The Chain Also Causes Another Monkey To Experience Electric Shocks?

Limbic Resonance: Why Our Eyes Really Are the Windows to Our Souls

Attachment, Psychological Influence and Mind Control

Listening

Avoid the pain: What we can learn from the Seligman research on dogs exposed to electric shock (Part 2)

Dogs, painful electric shocks, and explanatory style: What does the research tell us about feeling discouraged and helpless? (Part 1)

Psychotherapy Often Deals With Our Family History, But Does History Really Matter?

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Exploring counseling & psychotherapy, what works, and the research that supports it.Bill Martin, LCSW, 1300 West Belmont #309, Chicago, Il 60657, 312-409-0632

Archive for the 'How the Brain influences our lives' Category

Latest Posts

RSS Feeds

Search

Useful Links

Categories

Monthly

Useful Information

Exploring counseling & psychotherapy, what works, and the research that supports it.
Bill Martin, LCSW, 1300 West Belmont #309, Chicago, Il 60657, 312-409-0632