90-Minute Webinar: Brain-Heart Interactions and Optimizing Psychotherapy
Presented by: Donald Moss, PhD
Friday, October 18, 2024 at 12:00pm Eastern time zone
CLICK HERE for more information and to register
1.5 CE credits are available for this 90-minute webinar if you attend the complete live session. To purchase CE credits, CLICK HERE.
DESCRIPTION: Current neuroscience and psychophysiological research document autonomic and central nervous system processes that underlie compassion, social affiliation, cognitive flexibility, perspective-taking, and overall cognitive function. Each of these variables are among the goals of psychotherapy. Effective psychotherapy optimizes human caring and connection and enables patients to gain understanding and perspective on their lives.
Autonomic processes and brain processes interact here. Julia Wendt and Julian Thayer (20024) proposed that heart rate variability (HRV) is an index of pre-frontal cortical functionality. Autonomic regulation enhances the function in our brain’s control center and facilitates regulation of emotional brain centers such as the amygdala. Wendt and Thayer also state that lower HRV is a “transdiagnostic marker for psychopathology”. The less HRV is present, the more psychological problems mount. Social engagement is also affected here. Paul Gilbert described the critical role of the hormone oxytocin and vagal/parasympathetic input in human caring, connectedness, and compassion. Stephen Porges (2011, 2022) emphasized that the ventral vagal system provides the evolutionary foundation for attachment processes, social bonds, and the critical feelings of safety necessary for health human development. Bornemann et al. (2019, p4) summarized extensive research in this area: “Previous research has established that vagal regulation underpins social engagement, particularly, caregiving, and altruistic behaviours.”
This presentation proposes that adding psychophysiological interventions, such as breath training and heart rate variability training, to psychotherapy, moves the process of psychotherapeutic transformation forward, in: 1) facilitating human caring and compassion, 2) optimizing emotional regulation, and 3) enhancing cognitive flexibility, perspective taking, and executive functioning.
