We put a lot of work into our series. There’s a lot of research, preparation, writing and editing, filming – you name it.
But as the New Brain Science series winds to a close, and we pause to catch our breaths, I want to take a moment to appreciate one important thing that we can’t do ourselves. I’m talking about our comment boards.
Every time we run a series, I’m impressed by the quality, thoughtfulness, and insight of everyone who contributes after each webinar.
And what’s even better are the discussions that spring up – between nurses, counselors, psychiatrists, and other practitioners from so many fields and walks of life.
In fact, over 34,000 practitioners from 78 countries tuned in to our series this year, and many of you helped make our comment board vibrant, exciting, and informative.
So let’s take this time to share some of your thoughts. Here are some themes that came up across different calls.
Bringing neuroscience into our everyday lives:
“I sat absorbing the richness of this interview in a constant state of thankfulness. I shall personally practice Rick’s suggestion of taking time to really hold the positive experiences so that they are fully embedded in my brain and so that I truly get the benefit from them.”- Catherine McGeachy, Occupational Therapist, Limerick, Ireland
Inspiring new directions in our practice:
“I was quite excited to hear Dr. Doidge’s discussion on the brain’s role in chronic pain. I currently have a patient with chronic pain whose life is at a virtual standstill due to the experience of incessant pain, and for whom powerful painkillers are no longer effective. I feel I must read more about what Dr. Doidge says about this phenomenon so that I might help this patient. I have work to do!”- Merrilee Gibson, Marriage and Family Therapist, San Carlos, CA
And even some (literally) immediate applications:
“While Kelly was talking my son was crying, so I left the webinar on several occasions to help him self-regulate. It was so validating when I returned and she was talking about Attachment Parenting! While I was helping my son calm down we practiced affirmations (including ones of self-forgiveness) and he agreed to do a meditation – we meditated pretty deeply for 5-10 minutes and he was a new child. It was so beautiful the way he was giving me opportunities to help him by using the stuff Kelly was talking about, in the moment!”- Lori-Ann Schultz, Clinical Social Worker, Calgary, Alberta
If you got a chance to leave your thoughts on one of the comment boards (or our blog), thanks for your participation. Your active engagement makes these programs what they are – not simply webinar series, but true communities of practice.
So, again, thanks for being a part. If you haven’t viewed the Brain Science series yet, it’s not too late – just click here.
What part of this series have you found most valuable? Have you applied any of these lessons in your practice yet? Please share your experience in the comments below.
Neuroscience shouldn’t limited to treated mental disorders. In my view our Triune brain functionality can help discover communication strategies in order to spur public engagement and action on climate change. As a broadcast journalist, I’ve been having a difficult time convincing the media bosses that this is indeed the greatest challenge of our times, as has been suggested by many climate scientist. And intuitively many humans know this to be the case, but then why is that they avoid or ignore the issue? What’s going on in their minds? This is what prompted me to investigate neuroscience and I can’t even begin to express how valuable these lectures have been (from the parts I had the chance to tune in). Of course I’m a gold member, ad will be listening to the information carefully and I intend to implement the ideas provided into producing reports that would resonate better with the audience. SO A HEARTFELT THANK YOU RUTH for coordinating this seminar.
I find myself checking my brain for tension and relaxation several times a day.
I am more focussed on my breath, and breathe into my mind, my jaw, my neck more often.
With that I have noticed I am more present when speaking to others.
I have added some video clips to training which my trainees are enjoying!
Thank you so very much Ruth and NICABM staff for another brilliant learning series. I’ve attended each Brain series you’ve offered and this was another step up the ladder. Your production has also stepped up another rung I see. 🙂 When you have the same people being interviewed each year or so, I really like it because I can hear how their understanding has expanded and this adds to mine. I also feel like I’m sitting a circle with friends, you and the talk back pros and colleagues, the speakers. Please keep your series’ coming, all of them.
I’m grateful for the entire series! Something that keeps coming back to me is Rick Hanson’s point that even 10-30 seconds of focusing on positive experience prepares the brain to take in more of the positive. I volunteer 3 days a week socializing cats at our local animal shelter, including cats who are being treated for illness, and I leave feeling like I haven’t done enough because the cats are still there waiting to be adopted. Other volunteers have said they feel the same way. But if we can see that even giving 30 seconds of affection is a real help to an animal–and that we actually give more than that– and that many of us are doing it, that can help us see the positive in our own experiences. Now when I leave, I replay the good. Good builds on good! Thanks again for this series.
As always Ruth your seminars are just wonderful and filled with the latest discoveries, I love the passion everyone has about what they are sharing and the results that everyone achieves. I started listening in on your series in 2011, and have never missed any since. Its such an advantage to be able to listen in to such great proffessionals who are willing to share their knowledge to help us all spread the knowledge with others… It is inspiring and uplifting as a professional, to keep our forward health approaches active and growing. I look forward to your next series… Blessings to All.
This has been such a great series. i have heard some of the speakers before on Ruth’s or other sites and felt that the work of these great people was so helpful.
This time there were so many practical approaches, spelled out to be used very easily. Each week I seemed to have a client soon after the webinar that needed help in just the way it had been presented.
Thank you all so much.
Joan
The discussions with Ron and Joan are invaluable.
Loved the series. Kelly McGonigal’s session was worth the whole investment! Thanks, Brian
Hello,
I am not a therapist, at least not in the usual sense of the word. I am a 44 year old woman with cerebra palsy. About 10 years ago, I became dissatisfied with neurologists who only offered medication as a solution to a condition that, despite what I was told grossing up, tends to worson with age. So I started doing yoga and met a neurosurgeon to whom I expressed my dissatisfaction with the medical word and who urged me to read ‘The brain that changed itself’ by Norman Doidge. His book gave me lots of hope. I also feel lucky to have become such an active participant in my own ‘healthcare’. I also attended a 2 day seminar with beautiful Kelly McGonigall who is even more adorable in person!!! I have to say that I feel blessed to have the ability to learn and understand that science. I used to work as a translator and I have been wondering if one of my purpose in life is not to vulgarize or ‘translate’ this fast evolving field of knowledge into ‘tidbits’ that could help people take charge of their own wellbeing. Who knows???
Wish I could go back and make a few corrections!!!! 😉
Dear Sophie,
Your meaning is perfectly clear! The letters are wearing off my personal Delete key..
The genius store callde, they’re running out of you.
Do I use my brain to speak my mind?
Will more understanding of how the brain works really lead to more mindfulness in the world.
We know where the brain is. It starts in the GIT, sharing foetal development of neuronal tissue.
But, Where/What is the MIND? Where/What is the Spark that is Life?
What do drugs have to do with healing the mind if the mind is not a physical organ?
If what we eat is what we become, then What do non-food ingredients in the processed food supply have to do with Brain dysfunction (disease)?
Non-foods – MSG, Sucralose, Plastic molecules, chemical preservatives, colourings, antibiotics, hormones (from making food animals grow faster than they would in the wild), flouride…etc?
How do these components affect the gut biome and thus what we become.
Illness runs in families – not necessarily blood families, but gut biome identical families.
Western diseases are following the uptake of western style foods that determine the biology of the gut biome.
Is mental disorder also a measure of the nature of the gut biome?
Is what We become what our gut absorbs? Is this related to the bacterial makeup of our gut. Is this is what turns on and off the various components of our DNA that then determines our function in life.
How wonderful to read Violet Oaklander’s comments. I was inspired from my earliest trainee days by her now-classic book and by her work and workshops. Her Gestalt approach using art as “Windows to our Children” is one that we can now realize appeals to those workings of the child’s brain above and beyond what we can communicate and express in words. I am grateful for the NICABM presentations on brain science, and believe it inspires new ideas and directions and also validates older approaches that perhaps unwittingly used some “brain science” approaches, most especially in working with children, which I do.
I echo Dr. Oaklander’s appreciation of the transcripts, both because I have some hearing impairment and do not always hear clearly what is being presented. I also find I have a “visual” mind, and seeing these concepts in print helps to clarify them for me. In addition, the transcripts are invaluable when I am searching for that great comment that a presenter made that I want to use with a patient.
I have already found what I have learned in these presentations to be useful with current patients. Really, not possible to think of and/or list them all. Some that stand out for me include Rick Hanson’s discussion of how dwelling on positives for as little as 30 seconds can benefit the brain, Dr. Doidge’s application of brain science to chronic pain issues, and Pat Ogden’s ideas on reaching out to and supporting patients with trauma issues.
Thank you Ruth for your consistent and gentle attention to bringing the series into a holistic framework where the brain has the heart and emotions as a companion in coming to understand what it is to be a healthy human being. The presenters were all wonderful and also understand and work with these ideas, and some even extended the link into community and cultural aspects. Thank you to all.
Thank you NICABM for your generosity in allowing free access to the series.
I have a deep & continuing interest in the behavioral sciences & brain development. Unfortunately, although I concentrated in both accounting & behavioral science for my MBA degree, I choose what I believed at the time would be a better career path. Now your webinars are enabling me & many others to explore & learn on a path not taken. I am a long time meditator & particularly value Dr. Dan Siegel’s presentation. I bought “Mindsight” & his handbook. I have added his Wheel of Awareness practice to my daily In Time.
Thanks so much for providing this series.
Hello Ruth,
I have personally benefitted from the series and have used the Gold membership to help myself come back and share with colleagues in my own work setting. What thrills me from your comments, is that it sounds like a community of practice (a la Etienne Wenger) could be organically forming through this technologically mediated sharing of learning and practice.
I encourage you to check out Dr. Wenger’s work ( I was inspired by his book, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, 1998, Cambridge University Press.
Let’s be more intentional about sharing our learning edges!!
Thank you so much for the work that has gone into this and other series.
Janet Sheppard, PhD
University of Victoria
Pauline – I’m not sure why you are having that peorlbm. I just checked and all the pages seem to be operating properly. Your browser may not be acting properly, or you may need to install a more current version of Adobe Reader (adobe.com). Hope you get it sorted…
Could you get the panelists to discuss the mereological fallacy (Hacker) in relation to brain sciences and mindfulness? (The idea that it is bad grammar to say we walk with our legs, see with our eyes, or think with our brains, although those organs are obviously involved in or part of those activities.)
Thank you
Nick
Your turning me on to brain science has led to my further reading, and to the discovery of concepts like “implicit memory as opposed to explicit memory. I’ve taken that concept and applied to to a paper I wrote more than 45 years ago on the perception of reality (form), and had it published as “new wine in old bottles”. I continue to explore mindfulness and our perception of reality and apply, as best I can, to my clinical work. Thanks
George Steinfeld, Ph.D.
Thanks,Ruth for this brilliant series.The quality of the speakers,the commenters and the organization has been very high.Congratulations and many thanks¡
Thank you for the series. I have particularly appreciated the transcripts since I am hearing impaired and have trouble following even with earphones. The transcripts enable me to read each person’s talk several times. The series has been so informative and worthwhile.
I just want to say thank you to you Violet for the great books that you wrote.
Ruth
This for me was by far the best series yet! Each webinar had gems to use with clients and for myself and Pat Ogden is always a treat. It gives a framework to explain to people why we do the things we do and what to do about it. Thanks for bringing this to me as I live in a small town and not always able to attend conferences.
I love to learn and so appreciate the breadth and depth of information I receive through NICABM. I routinely discuss brain health, mindfulness, breath work,the benefits of exercise, and “noticing the good” with each of my clients. I also give each client the “brain health” handout (provided by NICABM some time back.) Almost always, my clients report benefits from these practices–some of them profound. Thank you for helping me help them.
I am not a physician, just the wife of a busy cardiologist. I enjoy and value your webinars so much! The last series was particularly interesting and useful Thank you immensely for making them available Unfortunately, I could attach my husband for only one conference!
February 21, 2013
to NICBM
CT.
Dear Ruth,
Sorry, I can’t afford to be a “GOLD MEMBER” since I’m simply not one of the 1% of the upper class. My wealth is inner, not in straw, tin, copper, silver or gold! The BRAIN and its functionings and connections in the body are for me a crucial part of life, with the emotions and intellect but especially the SOUL and in its creative inncr core! Your series helped me to understand better the physical, corporial aspects of the brain and its central importance in the overall functioning of the PERSON! I admire all that is being done through your NICABM organization; I’ve heard a few of your presentations, and I enjoyed them. Since I am but a lowly solitary monk/nun I simply can’t afford to be a “GOLD” member. I just pick up the crumbs that fall from your table of offerings; and, hope that what I pick up will help my personal over-all development of Mind-Body, Soul connection in a true Spirit of Love!
BRAIN CHANGE! but HEART CHANGE is also very important to humanity’s growth and development. Otherwise we, as humanity will always be lop-sided and unbalanced! “focus and mindfulness” yes, but can’t one get tooooooo full how about what is called “emtying the bowl”?
My life’s experience of 78 years has brought me all over the “rainbow spectrum” and into many dark “nooks and crannies” of both the outside world and my own inner “self” ! What a “mystery” it all is! And, I do hope and pray that researchers, therapists and PHD’s will be blessed not only to search out the functionings and changes that the BRAIN is undergoing in today’s world, but especially that the very “SPARK” of all LIFE will be found, encountered and respected as yet “UNKNOWN” to our puny little brains.
My your endeavors unveil a little more mindfullness, compassion, and mercy in your dealings with each and every person encountered in your own life’s journey, and in your practice. There is more trauma out there and in there than anyone can ever imagine! We endeavor to heal or at least to provide some kind of healing of that deep inner wound that we all carry in the depths of our being, with all the trauma that it leaves behind in its wake. History repeats itself in so many ways as humanity cycles and spirals into an unknown future.
Thank you for providing a few “free crumbs” that a Faith-filled person may gather them up as “seeds” or as you put it “potential” to be planted for future growth, development and understanding or the “human person” in the over-all scheme of NATURE.
Peace and Blessings,
Shestelle
Shestelle,
Thank-you for so beautifully expressing many of my feelings. The web seminar was terrific.
I look forward to another session. Wish I could hear them all again. I especially appreciated
Ruth ‘s voice in this and Joan Borsenko’s clarifying comments.
Thanks again,Cathy g
Thank you Shestelle for your post. So nice!
It has been really a great series, I’ve learned so much, and I appreciate the depth, humanity, simplicity, and compassion that all of you shared. I’m sharing with clients some of the tools, meditation and simple explanation on how our brain responds to the different challenges or difficulties, and I’ve experienced the relief on their faces, some of those hidden thoughts ‘I’m wrong’ just melted away.
what I’ve received is a lot, I’will need to go over again, so to integrate other pieces!
Thank you to all of you!
Maria
I watched the Pat Ogden webinar this week and by the end realized that I had to hear the others, so signed up for them. I have always avoided being one of those people who are wired up to headphones en route to work, but I must say that hearing these amazing speakers introduce their concepts to me in the morning has given a whole new depth to my commute! It also is a really gentle way to actually GET the concepts…I have many of their books but find I get lost in some of the particular language, so it is lovely to have a dialogue, and someone who is clarifying concepts and definitions for me…it will make the books so much more available I think. Once I find the time to sit down to read them! Gwen