Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems in Therapy

by Beatriz Sheldon, Albert Sheldon

Overview

Enabling patients’ minds to change the structure of their brains.

Beatriz and Albert Sheldon have spent the last 20 years developing the novel therapeutic paradigm called Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems (CIMBS). They have pioneered new methodology for "reading" and assessing emotional states using their patients’ carefully observed psychophysiological phenomena as empirical evidence. CIMBS also incorporates the latest groundbreaking research on neuroplasticity, brain development, and therapeutic change. This book details their novel neurobiological and psychotherapeutic paradigm—and reveals how therapists can use it for more successful treatment.

Clients come to therapy troubled by deeply ingrained neural circuits and emotional habits. The authors demonstrate how they use psychophysiological perspectives to recognize limitations in brain systems that are interfering with their patients’ functioning. And through “physiopsychotherapy,” they activate self-affirming, nonconscious emotional resources to change rigid, maladaptive neural circuits. CIMBS offers a way of “integrating” these [brain system] resources to foster more complex and flexible mental functioning and to produce more successful psychotherapeutic outcomes. The therapeutic attachment relationship between therapist and patient, and “present moment” experiences within the session rather than recollections of past trauma, are key elements in this unique emotional resource-based mode of therapy.

This book is wide-ranging in documenting CIMBS' success at operationalizing neuroscience research. Translating their academic, scientific, and clinical research and successful training courses into a reference work that you can hold in your hands and savor at leisure, the Sheldons have produced an approachable, intriguing, yet comprehensive milestone in the psychotherapeutic literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393713275
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Series:	IPNB
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	526,157
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Beatriz Sheldon M.Ed, Psych. has practiced psychotherapy for forty years in four languages. Ms. Sheldon received specialized post-graduate training in short-term dynamic psychotherapy at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Director of a psychotherapy training program for advanced clinicians in Vancouver, Canada, she and Albert have researched and taught psychotherapy together for 20 years.

Albert Sheldon, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington, Seattle, has specialized in the research, practice and training of psychotherapy for 35 years. Dr. Sheldon received a Bush Medical Fellowship to study psychotherapeutic processes from a psychophysiological perspective. The development of the CIMBS paradigm is a result of the Sheldon’s research and teaching experiential psychotherapy to clinicians throughout North America and Europe.

Table of Contents

Foreword Daniel J. Siegel xi

How to Read This Book xv

Preface xvii

Introduction to Part I The Origins of Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems 1

Chapter 1 Discovering Emotional Brain Systems 13

Chapter 2 Resilient Brain Systems and Fail-Safe Complex Networks 45

Chapter 3 Research and Principles 70

Chapter 4 A Different Frame of Mind: Go the Other Way, Changing Patient Factors 94

Chapter 5 The Therapeutic Attachment Relationship and Therapist Factors 118

Chapter 6 Initial Directed Activation of Multiple Brain Systems 146

Introduction to Part II Deeper Dive Into Multiple Brain Systems 173

Chapter 7 Conscious Brain Systems: The A-Team 190

Chapter 8 Facilitating and Differentiating Tertiary-Level Brain Systems 212

Chapter 9 Integrating Resilient Conscious Brain Systems 240

Chapter 10 Primary-Level Brain Systems: The Powerhouses 264

Chapter 11 Horizontal and Vertical Differentiating of the Primary-Level Brain Systems 290

Chapter 12 Integrating Primary-Level Brain Systems 313

Chapter 13 Secondary-Level Brain Systems 340

Chapter 14 Psychophysiological Perspective and Physiopsychotherapy 367

Chapter 15 Neuroplasticity 386

Chapter 16 Summary 400

Addendum: CIMBS Online Therapy 411

Glossary 415

Bibliography 433

Index 441

Editorial Reviews

"An extraordinary, invaluable, and seminal contribution to the growing library of Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuropsychology literature.... [E]specially recommended for professional, college, and university library Clinical Psychology and Medical Clinical Psychology collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."

Midwest Book Review

"Wow, what a book. This extraordinary summary of clinically relevant brain science is clearly written, thoroughly practical, and infused with caring for the people we work with. It provides a necessary foundation for early career therapists while also offering many fresh insights for experienced clinicians. The overall approach is truly brilliant. Highly recommended. "

Rick Hanson

"Psychotherapeutic insights and practices are being revolutionized by neuroscience, epigenetics, and the growing recognition that we have multiple evolved processing systems, many of which are not fully conscious and can be in conflict. In this intriguing book on interacting brain systems, Beatriz and Albert Sheldon attempt to bridge recent findings from evolutionary neuroscience into therapeutic insights and practices. They indicate how therapists can help clients become familiar with old and new brain processes and help them cultivate motives and competencies that enable a better interaction and integration of mental processes. Therapists will find many new ways of thinking about psychological processes and ways of engaging with client complexity. An easy to understand, unique, and deeply informative book for all therapists."

Paul Gilbert

"Beatriz and Albert Sheldon provide an innovative model in which insights from neuroscience are embodied in an effective and compassionate form of psychotherapy. At the core of their therapy is a deep respect for our need as a species to be safe and to trust. Their insightful treatment model documents that the journey to optimized mental health may efficiently be reached through a treatment model informed by an appreciation of the brain circuits that evolved to support out biological imperative to trust and to be socially connected. "

Stephen W. Porges