Quote from AStubbs on April 19, 2021, 7:11 pm

Describe the difference between "learning brain" and "survival brain" and the anticipated effects of survival brain on bio-psycho-social development, learning and development of interpersonal relationships.

Quote from Hal on April 26, 2021, 3:00 pm

The learning brain is one that is okay with ambiguity and uncertainty.  It is more calm, peaceful, excited about learning and curious.  Those in this brain state are not as worried about making mistakes.  They are open to new information.  They are able to take a step back and take in the larger picture of what is going on around them.

The survival brain is hyper-focused on safety.  It is more anxious, worried and fearful.  Those in this brain state are not comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.  There is little “gray” area the tendency is to see thing in a “black or white” way of thinking.

When triggered, the survival brain trumps and can “hijack” the learning brain.  Gottman refers to this as “flooding.”  In this situation, the limbic system is more detached from the prefrontal cortex where reason, judgement, impulse control, goal-setting, planning, learning from mistakes and predicting outcomes takes place and the person goes into “survival mode.”  It can also impact brain development including areas of emotional awareness, problem solving and self-regulation related to distress and one’s window of tolerance.

It important to recognize when a client is in this state and to help them learn to recognize when the are approaching that state.  Journaling, body awareness, a tracking system, mindfulness meditation, HeartMath and neurofeedback are helpful.  Helpful ways to address the underlying trauma(s) include Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) among others.

Quote from lys_kiss18 on April 28, 2021, 3:03 pm

Quote from Hal on April 26, 2021, 3:00 pm

The learning brain is one that is okay with ambiguity and uncertainty.  It is more calm, peaceful, excited about learning and curious.  Those in this brain state are not as worried about making mistakes.  They are open to new information.  They are able to take a step back and take in the larger picture of what is going on around them.

The survival brain is hyper-focused on safety.  It is more anxious, worried and fearful.  Those in this brain state are not comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.  There is little “gray” area the tendency is to see thing in a “black or white” way of thinking.

When triggered, the survival brain trumps and can “hijack” the learning brain.  Gottman refers to this as “flooding.”  In this situation, the limbic system is more detached from the prefrontal cortex where reason, judgement, impulse control, goal-setting, planning, learning from mistakes and predicting outcomes takes place and the person goes into “survival mode.”  It can also impact brain development including areas of emotional awareness, problem solving and self-regulation related to distress and one’s window of tolerance.

It important to recognize when a client is in this state and to help them learn to recognize when the are approaching that state.  Journaling, body awareness, a tracking system, mindfulness meditation, HeartMath and neurofeedback are helpful.  Helpful ways to address the underlying trauma(s) include Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) among others.

Hal,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I thought you did a great job at explaining these two systems and the way they interact with each other.

I think understanding the neurochemistry that is at play in trauma work is so important. Learning about the "hijacking" of the learning brain is something I imagine would be very validating for individuals experiencing it. There is a lot of validity that comes through understanding the ways our brain works to protect us and ways to unlearn that behavior when the threat is no longer present.

I appreciated your list of valuable interventions for helping with reducing the number and severity of hijacks on the learning brain. Things such as art therapy and mindfulness, in my opinion, are effective in opening back up the curiosity and excitement of the learning brain.

Thank you!

Quote from Natalie Lassiter on April 29, 2021, 1:11 am

Quote from Hal on April 26, 2021, 3:00 pm

The learning brain is one that is okay with ambiguity and uncertainty.  It is more calm, peaceful, excited about learning and curious.  Those in this brain state are not as worried about making mistakes.  They are open to new information.  They are able to take a step back and take in the larger picture of what is going on around them.

The survival brain is hyper-focused on safety.  It is more anxious, worried and fearful.  Those in this brain state are not comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.  There is little “gray” area the tendency is to see thing in a “black or white” way of thinking.

When triggered, the survival brain trumps and can “hijack” the learning brain.  Gottman refers to this as “flooding.”  In this situation, the limbic system is more detached from the prefrontal cortex where reason, judgement, impulse control, goal-setting, planning, learning from mistakes and predicting outcomes takes place and the person goes into “survival mode.”  It can also impact brain development including areas of emotional awareness, problem solving and self-regulation related to distress and one’s window of tolerance.

It important to recognize when a client is in this state and to help them learn to recognize when the are approaching that state.  Journaling, body awareness, a tracking system, mindfulness meditation, HeartMath and neurofeedback are helpful.  Helpful ways to address the underlying trauma(s) include Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) among other

 

Hal,

I appreciated your response and thought it was thorough and thoughtful. Your write up of the learning brain and the survival brain made me see more clearly how many of my clients are in survival brain and honestly made me even more impressed with all my trauma clients have accomplished while in survival mode! It also made me hopeful for what they can accomplish and learn and grow in once they are in a place of being able to manage their emotional flooding and have widened their window of tolerance. The brain is amazing in its resilience and its ability to grow and change!

 

Quote from cindy271 on April 29, 2021, 4:00 am

Quote from Hal on April 26, 2021, 3:00 pm

The learning brain is one that is okay with ambiguity and uncertainty.  It is more calm, peaceful, excited about learning and curious.  Those in this brain state are not as worried about making mistakes.  They are open to new information.  They are able to take a step back and take in the larger picture of what is going on around them.

The survival brain is hyper-focused on safety.  It is more anxious, worried and fearful.  Those in this brain state are not comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.  There is little “gray” area the tendency is to see thing in a “black or white” way of thinking.

When triggered, the survival brain trumps and can “hijack” the learning brain.  Gottman refers to this as “flooding.”  In this situation, the limbic system is more detached from the prefrontal cortex where reason, judgement, impulse control, goal-setting, planning, learning from mistakes and predicting outcomes takes place and the person goes into “survival mode.”  It can also impact brain development including areas of emotional awareness, problem solving and self-regulation related to distress and one’s window of tolerance.

It important to recognize when a client is in this state and to help them learn to recognize when the are approaching that state.  Journaling, body awareness, a tracking system, mindfulness meditation, HeartMath and neurofeedback are helpful.  Helpful ways to address the underlying trauma(s) include Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) among others.

Hal,

Thank you so much for the clear explanation of what happens in the brain when someone is getting overwhelmed with fear.  I am always so curious about what is happening in the brain at different points, but it is such a complicated organ with so many things going on at the same time that I have a hard time making sense of everything.

Your explanation made me think of the times when I have felt fear in relationships and how good it would have felt to have a clearer understanding of what was happening inside of me and how it was affecting my behaviors.  I also reflect on how easily couples can escalate out of control in the counseling office.  No doubt it’s because they are going into the survival brain mode.  It motivates me to persevere in my understanding of the neurology of trauma and fear responses so that I can help my clients through these difficult emotions.

Quote from Carmon Conover on April 29, 2021, 4:59 pm

Sometimes I meet with clients who come to me for help with mental health issues or relationship problems who tell me they don’t want to talk about the past. As a person-centered therapist who also uses an attachment-based approach, this creates a dilemma! Thankfully, they almost always give me permission to explain my “whole person” approach to counseling: You are not just a head and you are not just a body…you are a WHOLE person. You cannot get away from the fact that your nervous system, created by God to help you emotionally and physically survive and thrive, can be affected by your early development, and the way your brain learned to respond to interactions with your caregivers laid down patterns of emotional and physical responses your autonomic nervous system still recalls.

I love the brain lesson that Dr. Dan Siegel uses to explain this. I call it my puppet show, holding up a (non-threatening) fist facing outward, fingers wrapped over my thumb hiding in my palm. I explain how my wrist and the heel of my hand represent the brain stem and the hidden thumb is the limbic/emotional system. The brain stem controls autonomic body functions such as heart rate, hunger, breathing, sleep patterns, and sex drive, and it also receives sensory input, quickly deciding how to react, sending messages to the limbic system, controlling emotional responses. If something (or someone!) is perceived as threatening, then Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn defenses show up to deal with that threat. If the perceived threat is big enough, the prefrontal cortex (represented by the fingers folded over), responsible for logic and weighing options, gets out of the way so the “survival brain” can do its job of protecting us. Like Dr. Siegel, I represent this by making my fingers stand up straight, so they no longer touch the palm of my hand. This is a powerful visual representation of how when we are emotionally triggered, it is difficult for us to think clearly and it feels like our emotions are now in charge.

This is a simplistic way to help people understand that our “emotional brain” and our “thinking brain” can sometimes seem like they are at odds. It makes so much sense that when a person grew up living with emotional brain responses helping them survive difficult or even abusive early life experiences, their nervous system learned to depend on their chosen survival response, and they became less able to be in a calmer state in which their thinking brain could stay fully engaged. There are negative effects on the body from this kind of perpetual nervous system activation, which makes sense considering all the important body systems controlled by the brain stem and the stress hormones released when survival responses are triggered. We know this is true from the ACES study. Of course, this creates emotional and interpersonal issues, as well, as the sensitized nervous system is easily threatened, and a person loses the resilience they need to feel stable or even to trust themselves or others.

Dr. Bruce Perry describes the way our brains operate in a “bottom-up” fashion, as we perceive the world through our “survival brain” and those perceptions educate our “learning brain,” which is slower to respond and dependent on options it receives from the brain stem mediated by the limbic system. Sometimes those options are limited if a person has been in early life situations that felt unsafe or unreliable. The good news is that our brains are capable of learning new responses and perceiving more and healthier options; but this view of how the brain develops and learns suggests that interventions must be targeted at the “survival brain” as well as to the “learning brain.” Somatic interventions, EMDR, breathing techniques, and more, may be necessary for therapists to use, as well as traditional talk therapy, to help those who have experienced trauma to make peace between their survival brains and their thinking brains.

Quote from Karissacurt on April 30, 2021, 5:19 pm

Quote from Carmon Conover on April 29, 2021, 4:59 pm

Sometimes I meet with clients who come to me for help with mental health issues or relationship problems who tell me they don’t want to talk about the past. As a person-centered therapist who also uses an attachment-based approach, this creates a dilemma! Thankfully, they almost always give me permission to explain my “whole person” approach to counseling: You are not just a head and you are not just a body…you are a WHOLE person. You cannot get away from the fact that your nervous system, created by God to help you emotionally and physically survive and thrive, can be affected by your early development, and the way your brain learned to respond to interactions with your caregivers laid down patterns of emotional and physical responses your autonomic nervous system still recalls.

I love the brain lesson that Dr. Dan Siegel uses to explain this. I call it my puppet show, holding up a (non-threatening) fist facing outward, fingers wrapped over my thumb hiding in my palm. I explain how my wrist and the heel of my hand represent the brain stem and the hidden thumb is the limbic/emotional system. The brain stem controls autonomic body functions such as heart rate, hunger, breathing, sleep patterns, and sex drive, and it also receives sensory input, quickly deciding how to react, sending messages to the limbic system, controlling emotional responses. If something (or someone!) is perceived as threatening, then Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn defenses show up to deal with that threat. If the perceived threat is big enough, the prefrontal cortex (represented by the fingers folded over), responsible for logic and weighing options, gets out of the way so the “survival brain” can do its job of protecting us. Like Dr. Siegel, I represent this by making my fingers stand up straight, so they no longer touch the palm of my hand. This is a powerful visual representation of how when we are emotionally triggered, it is difficult for us to think clearly and it feels like our emotions are now in charge.

This is a simplistic way to help people understand that our “emotional brain” and our “thinking brain” can sometimes seem like they are at odds. It makes so much sense that when a person grew up living with emotional brain responses helping them survive difficult or even abusive early life experiences, their nervous system learned to depend on their chosen survival response, and they became less able to be in a calmer state in which their thinking brain could stay fully engaged. There are negative effects on the body from this kind of perpetual nervous system activation, which makes sense considering all the important body systems controlled by the brain stem and the stress hormones released when survival responses are triggered. We know this is true from the ACES study. Of course, this creates emotional and interpersonal issues, as well, as the sensitized nervous system is easily threatened, and a person loses the resilience they need to feel stable or even to trust themselves or others.

Dr. Bruce Perry describes the way our brains operate in a “bottom-up” fashion, as we perceive the world through our “survival brain” and those perceptions educate our “learning brain,” which is slower to respond and dependent on options it receives from the brain stem mediated by the limbic system. Sometimes those options are limited if a person has been in early life situations that felt unsafe or unreliable. The good news is that our brains are capable of learning new responses and perceiving more and healthier options; but this view of how the brain develops and learns suggests that interventions must be targeted at the “survival brain” as well as to the “learning brain.” Somatic interventions, EMDR, breathing techniques, and more, may be necessary for therapists to use, as well as traditional talk therapy, to help those who have experienced trauma to make peace between their survival brains and their thinking brains.

Carmon, Wow!! Thank you so much for this simple yet detailed explanation of the survival brain responses. Dan Siegel has of course been pivotal in my understanding of the brain as well, so I always appreciate a refresher on this lesson, especially with how to communicate it to clients! I believe it was Brene Brown where I heard this, but she explains that because our brains understand through story, when we don’t have all the facts of an event or experience, our brains fill in the gaps to create the story that will most help us survive—in other words, the narratives our brains learned as children to protect us, that is the same narrative our brain continues to tell us, hence my favorite phrase from Brene Brown: “The story I’m telling myself…” So it makes sense that our “survival brain” is what informs our “learning brain.”

Again, thank you!!

Quote from alisonemilybarnard@gmail.com on May 1, 2021, 3:10 am

Quote from Carmon Conover on April 29, 2021, 4:59 pm

Sometimes I meet with clients who come to me for help with mental health issues or relationship problems who tell me they don’t want to talk about the past. As a person-centered therapist who also uses an attachment-based approach, this creates a dilemma! Thankfully, they almost always give me permission to explain my “whole person” approach to counseling: You are not just a head and you are not just a body…you are a WHOLE person. You cannot get away from the fact that your nervous system, created by God to help you emotionally and physically survive and thrive, can be affected by your early development, and the way your brain learned to respond to interactions with your caregivers laid down patterns of emotional and physical responses your autonomic nervous system still recalls.

I love the brain lesson that Dr. Dan Siegel uses to explain this. I call it my puppet show, holding up a (non-threatening) fist facing outward, fingers wrapped over my thumb hiding in my palm. I explain how my wrist and the heel of my hand represent the brain stem and the hidden thumb is the limbic/emotional system. The brain stem controls autonomic body functions such as heart rate, hunger, breathing, sleep patterns, and sex drive, and it also receives sensory input, quickly deciding how to react, sending messages to the limbic system, controlling emotional responses. If something (or someone!) is perceived as threatening, then Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn defenses show up to deal with that threat. If the perceived threat is big enough, the prefrontal cortex (represented by the fingers folded over), responsible for logic and weighing options, gets out of the way so the “survival brain” can do its job of protecting us. Like Dr. Siegel, I represent this by making my fingers stand up straight, so they no longer touch the palm of my hand. This is a powerful visual representation of how when we are emotionally triggered, it is difficult for us to think clearly and it feels like our emotions are now in charge.

This is a simplistic way to help people understand that our “emotional brain” and our “thinking brain” can sometimes seem like they are at odds. It makes so much sense that when a person grew up living with emotional brain responses helping them survive difficult or even abusive early life experiences, their nervous system learned to depend on their chosen survival response, and they became less able to be in a calmer state in which their thinking brain could stay fully engaged. There are negative effects on the body from this kind of perpetual nervous system activation, which makes sense considering all the important body systems controlled by the brain stem and the stress hormones released when survival responses are triggered. We know this is true from the ACES study. Of course, this creates emotional and interpersonal issues, as well, as the sensitized nervous system is easily threatened, and a person loses the resilience they need to feel stable or even to trust themselves or others.

Dr. Bruce Perry describes the way our brains operate in a “bottom-up” fashion, as we perceive the world through our “survival brain” and those perceptions educate our “learning brain,” which is slower to respond and dependent on options it receives from the brain stem mediated by the limbic system. Sometimes those options are limited if a person has been in early life situations that felt unsafe or unreliable. The good news is that our brains are capable of learning new responses and perceiving more and healthier options; but this view of how the brain develops and learns suggests that interventions must be targeted at the “survival brain” as well as to the “learning brain.” Somatic interventions, EMDR, breathing techniques, and more, may be necessary for therapists to use, as well as traditional talk therapy, to help those who have experienced trauma to make peace between their survival brains and their thinking brains.

Carmon, I love your thorough and thoughtful explanation of the learning brain and the survival brain! I have also used the hand illustration with clients and it is so powerful! I think one of the most powerful things with that is not only validated the clients experience of feeling out of control (“I know it’s not a good thing to do but I do it anyway”), but it also provides I biological explanation of their experience that can work to diffuse shame. This type of education with a client can also work to build safety in the relationship with the counselor, which will also be a huge factor in the clients healing journey.

Quote from Crista Newman on May 2, 2021, 6:18 pm

The “learning brain” is the portion of the brain that is connected to the parasympathetic nervous system and allows one to cultivate an awareness of emotional experience and thereby assess and respond to stress in ways that develop resiliency. This portion of the brain is housed in the pre-frontal cortex and serves the purpose of directing practices of judgement, planning, and conscience. This part of the brain has also been referred to as the “thinking brain” (Stanley, 2019, p. 110).

 

The “survival brain” is the portion of the human brain that responds to stress, threat, and danger. In The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk explains that this system is also referred to as the limbic system (2015). He goes on to explain that the limbic system is the “emotional seat of the brain” (van der Kolk, 2015, p. 56). This “survival brain” forms in response to one’s experiences and is influenced by the one’s genetic makeup at birth (van der Kolk, 2015). Therefore, it is not a hard concept to grasp that this part of the brain can have quite a significant impact on the bio-psych-social development of an individual. The limbic system signals the release of cortisol and other stress hormones which have been proven to have an impact on heart health and cancer development later in life. An over-stimulated “survival brain” means that a person exists in a state of constant stress-response activation. When someone lives in a state of survival, not only do the body systems biologically, but a person loses connection to the learning portion of the brain which affects the psychological and social functioning of the individual. Without intervention, traumatized individuals can experience long-term significant impact due to a “mis-wiring” of the sympathetic nervous system.

 

References

 

Stanley, E., Ph.D. (2019). Widen the window. New York, NY: Avery.

Van der Kolk, B. A., M.D. (2015). The body keeps the score brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma. New York, NY: Penguin Books.