In comprehending how and why neuropsychotherapy works and how it can help with trauma and stress, as well as anxiety and depression, it is important to understand the brain mechanisms that ground our psychic processes and know how our nervous system reacts to our internal narratives and external stressors.

Our biological brains evolved to allow us to adapt and change for survival, and what we might call "symptoms" (of depression/anxiety) is our mind and body's way of adapting to and coping with stressful environments.  The new knowledge about the brain and nervous system structure and function of our minds necessitates integrating brain-based techniques in the psychotherapeutic process. For example, when stressed, we may notice our memory and thinking processes are affected. These skills emerge from our prefrontal cortex. We may forget things, feel we cannot think clearly, or feel we cannot focus. There is a real chemical and biological reason for this: cortisol increases in our body when stressed. This chemical prevents our prefrontal cortex from working as well as it should, and the emotional centres (amygdala) of our brain take over. When stressed, we may feel more emotionally dysregulated primarily because our prefrontal cortex is bathed in cortisol and cannot work properly.












Normally, our brain has moderate amounts of chemical messengers that lead the prefrontal cortex to take charge and perform high-level thinking (above left) and balance our emotions. But with stress or anxiety, cortisol, among other chemicals, can flood the brain and activate our emotional centres involved in sensing and responding to threats (above right). We may feel scared of everything, and our cognitive processes cannot help us think our way out of our emotions.

Moreover, when we feel stressed, anxious, depressed, or traumatized, we may start to ask ourselves, "Am I safe"? When stressed or anxious, our nervous system triggers our fight-or-flight response. When cortisol floods our brain, our survival instincts kick in, and we may also ask, "Am I loved"? During stress and emotional dysregulation, we may feel isolated, alone, and unloved in those moments. 













Thus, an integrative approach is needed to consider the dynamic interaction between the mind, brain, and nervous system. Brain-based psychotherapy and counselling aim to change brain functioning not directly but indirectly through time with talk therapy, new lived experiences, and the new thoughts, feelings, and insights that emerge in talk therapy. But more importantly, this type of therapy can help you regain control over your nervous system and your emotions. The goal of Neuropsychotherapy is to strengthen your executive functioning in your prefrontal cortex. In so doing, I provide you with skills to calm your nervous system, educate you in brain/body interactions, and help you feel safer in your life and relationships. 
 
You will learn skills, work through and process trauma and family-of-origin issues, and/or become more aware of your own emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses. In neuropsychotherapy, we deal with each of these types of responses while working in a safe therapeutic environment. 












Being trained in Contemporary Relational Psychoanalysis, Psychodynamic psychotherapy, and Neuropsychotherapy, I offer a framework for you to explore your emotional needs, attachment styles, and any struggles rooted in interpersonal connections due to trauma or early family of origin issues that current realities have triggered. After the pandemic hit many client's realised that the new stress and anxiety they were feeling were really triggering past family of origin stressors. For some, they realized they grew up with adversity during their childhood.