Sebern Fisher – Developmental Trauma and The Fear-Driven Brain: Applied Neuroscience to Provide Hope and Healing in Trauma Treatment

Outline

Insecure Attachment and Developmental Trauma

• Neuronal patterns of PTSD
• The innate potential for relationship
• Unrepaired attachment disruption
• The inheritance of insecure attachment – the state of baseline survival fear
• Long-term consequences – void of self

The Fear-Driven Brain: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma

• The traumatized brain
  • The autonomic and central nervous systems
  • The brainstem and hypothalamus
  • The cerebellum, hemispheres and lobes of the brain
• Neurodevelopmental consequences
  • Impaired brain development
  • Impaired emotional regulation and impulse control
  • Dysregulated stress response
  • Alterations in physical growth
  • Telomeres and cellular aging
• The firing and misfiring of neural networks
• Parasympathetic Nervous System shutdown and the vagal nerve
  • Polyvagal Theory in trauma practice – Porges
• The role of glial cells
• Accessing brain plasticity

Arousal, Reactivity, and Affect Dysregulation in Trauma

• Overarousal and affect dysregulation
• Primary, sub-cortical and right hemisphere affects
• The inherent limits of talk therapy
• Chronic baseline fear and self-reflection
• The role of affect regulation in therapeutic effectiveness

Stop Letting Fear, Shame and Rage Hijack Trauma Treatment

• Shortcomings of medication
• The relationship between fear and shame
• Cognition in “survival mode”
• Manifestations of limbically driven emotions
• Neurofeedback and the pulses of fear, shame and rage

Fear as the Core of Transference: Handle Transference and Counter-Transference Issues

• Critical interpersonal dynamics – a partnership in affect regulation
• Impacts on the therapeutic bond
• Minimize intense transference
• Cultivate presence and attunement
• Neurofeedback and quieting the alarm of abandonment

Neurofeedback as Applied Neuroscience in Psychotherapy: Essentials and Assessment

• The risks of treatment
• Shift the burden of affect regulation from the therapist to the training
• A new experience of homeostasis
• Firing, frequencies, and arousal
• Strengthen circuits
• State dependence – fear states dysregulate
• States to traits

Quiet Fear with Neurofeedback: Integrate Neurofeedback into Trauma Treatment

• When to talk and when to train
• Clinical assessment for neurofeedback
  • Attention, anxiety, depression, etc.
• Considerations regarding sexuality and medication
• Work with sensors, placements
• Identify maladaptive patterns of neuronal firing
• Using EEG – frequencies and amplitudes
• Adjust function – operant conditioning of brain waves
• Feedback – change the frequencies attributed to over-arousal
  • Inhibit frequencies you want less of
  • Reward frequencies you want more of
  • Reward disconnected areas to connect or overly connected parts to disconnect
• When training plateaus – lack of progress is not resistance
• How do you know when training is over?

Who Will I Be When I’m Not Afraid: Working with the Fear-Bound Identity

• A trauma identity inextricably bound to fear
• The healing paradox
• Treatment challenges when fear begins to quiet
• Transition clients to an unfamiliar identity
  • Integration of new state, new traits and new sense of self