1st Edition

Therapy in the Age of Neuroscience A Guide for Counsellors and Therapists

By Peter Afford Copyright 2020
    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    Therapy in the Age of Neuroscience: A Guide for Counsellors and Therapists is an essential guide to key areas of neuroscience that inform the theory underlying psychotherapy, and how they can be applied to practice. Laying out the science clearly and accessibly, it outlines what therapists need to know about the human nervous system in order to be able to engage with the subject. 

    Chapters cover the neuroscience underlying key aspects of therapy such as relationships, emotion, anxiety, trauma and dissociation, the mind-body connection, and the processes which enable therapists to engage deeper aspects of mind and psyche. This book responds to the need for counsellors and therapists to have an accessible and comprehensive guide to how contemporary neuroscience views mind and body.

    Therapy in the Age of Neuroscience will appeal to psychotherapists, counsellors and other mental health professionals who wish to learn more about how to integrate neuroscience into their work.

    Introduction 01. Psychotherapy meets neuroscience 02. The brain is a nervous system 03. One brain, two minds 04. Relationships and social engagement 05. Emotions, feelings and the felt sense 06. Stress, anxiety and depression 07. Trauma and depression 08. Mental health matters 09. The mind-body connection 10. Engaging the mind 11. Meaningful experiences Epilogue: Ways ahead

    Biography

    Peter Afford has worked as a counsellor and therapist in private practice and in organisations for over 25 years. He has developed and taught courses in neuroscience for therapists since 2007 and has been a Focusing teacher since the 1980s.

    "In Therapy in the Age of Neuroscience, psychotherapist Peter Afford boldly integrates the voices of contemporary neuroscientists into a therapist-relevant narrative that interlaces psychological constructs including diagnostic features with a knowledge of the relevant role that specific neural structures play in movements, thoughts and feelings. Through the lens of a therapist, the reader is informed how a knowledge of neuroscience can inform, support and at times transform treatment models relevant to mental health." - Stephen W Porges, PhD, Distinguished University Scientist, Indiana University, Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, and author of The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe.

    "This book is a useful compendium of recent thinking on the emotional brain. Written in a clear, readable style, it will help psychotherapists to digest neuroscientific knowledge and integrate it with the practice of psychotherapy." - Sue Gerhardt, author of Why Love Matters.