Neurobiology Essentials for Clinicians: What Every Therapists Needs To Know

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W. W. Norton & Company, Feb 4, 2013 - Medical - 332 pages
A primer on brain functionality as it relates to therapeutic work.

This book presents an overview of the latest theories of affect regulation and focuses on how these theories work in clinical settings and how therapists can be taught to implement them. The notion of teaching and learning will be extended by the theories themselves—the author presents methods of education that enact the theories being taught.

The book is divided into eight chapters, each one highlighting a particular structure or related structures of the brain. Suggestions for learning how to clinically apply the neurobiological/neuroanatomical information are offered. What is so unique about this book is that the bulk of the chapters are clinical dialogue, accompanied by neurobiological commentary. Thus, readers can see for themselves, during the course of parts of sessions, just how a “neurobiological outlook” can inform therapeutic understandings of what clients are doing and saying. The result is a very user-friendly learning experience for readers, as they are taken along a journey of understanding various brain systems and how they relate to psychotherapeutic principles.

Elegantly bridging the gap between the academic and clinical domains, this book is essential for anyone interested in the application of neurobiological principles to psychotherapy and wishes to learn about neurobiology without feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.
 

Contents

Foreword by Allan N Schore
ix
Preface
xvii
Affect Regulation and the Autonomic Nervous
27
Defense Mechanisms and the Limbic System 28
28
Threat Management and the Amygdala
65
Therapeutic Engagement Issues and the Vagal System
90
Personality Disorders as Affect Management
114
PART II
191
Working with Groups How Selected Principles
217
Integrating Selected Neurobiological Concepts
244
Epilogue
278
References
292
Index
319
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About the author (2013)

Arlene Montgomery, MSSW, PhD, LCSW, has taught at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work and Smith College School for Social Work since 1993. She is the author of Neurobiology Essentials for Clinicians, has a private practice, and lives in Austin, Texas.

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