Interpersonal Neurobiology
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IN) is an approach to psychotherapy that says mind is impacted,
or we can even say created, by the physiological brain and by the relationships we have experienced in our lives. But it’s not a one-way street. IN shows how the neuroplastic brain is also created by mind and relationships AND that relationships are created by mind and brain! It’s a triangular process in which each corner of the triangle radically affects the other two.
To intervene successfully to create a happier healthier you, we can impact the bodymind through different mental techniques such as meditation (mind), through physiological techniques such as a healthy diet (brain), or by relational techniques such as counseling (relationship).
As partners in designing your future, you and I examine the myriad components that make up your unique triangle and apply different techniques from each corner to help you grow into the person you wish to be. Actually, Morgan works with a square, rather than a triangle, because she adds the component of “soul.” Frankly, I have no idea what a a soul is, but when I look at you I see it. It is something that is not the other three things and it can be nourished and supported in ways that are not ways we support body, mind or relational life. Perhaps it is an aspect of pure consciousness, but then I’m just guessing…
Leave it to say that life doesn’t have to be a confusing and disappointing emotional mishmash. With the conceptual and analytical tool of Interpersonal Neurobiology and a dash of soul, we can identify where your snafus lie then stack the deck in favor of personal fulfillment and success.
Dr. Dan’s Definition of Mind:
“While many scientists state something to the effect that ‘the mind is what the brain does,’ I myself, trained as a scientist, as well as a clinician and educator, find this an incomplete stance. In The Developing Mind I make the scientifically-presented case that the mind is not simply brain activity. The mind, beyond subjective experience and beyond conscious and non-conscious information processing, can be seen as a self-organizing, emergent process of a complex system. And that system is both within us and between us and others.
A complex system is characterized by these three features: it is non-linear (small inputs lead to large and unpredictable results), it is open (influenced by things from outside of “itself”), and it is chaos-capable (meaning it can function in erratic, unpredictable ways at times). Sound familiar in your life? If our own lives meet these three criteria, then we ourselves are complex systems.
Now, the math of complexity theory reveals that all complex systems have emergent properties, processes that arise from the flow of the system’s elements across time. So math—a form of science revealing aspects of reality—suggests that one of those emergent properties is self-organization. This is where a process arises from the elements of the system and then turns back and regulates that from which it arose. That’s called recursvity, a positive feedback loop reinforcing itself over time.
The reason to go into all this conceptual discussion here is simply this: I believe (and cannot find any science to disprove) that an important aspect of the mind can be defined as an embodied and relational, emergent self-organizing process that regulates the flow of energy and information both within us and between and among us.
In short, the mind is an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information.”
This definition was excerpted from an article originally published in Psychology Today
