Seminar Description

This seminar presents the sea change occurring in psychotherapy. Just as the field of medicine has been recently transformed by Functional and Integrative Medicine, psychotherapy in the 21st Century is moving toward integration. Given that psychotherapy will increasingly address health factors, with epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology at the forefront, this integration brings those fields of research that had previously been compartmentalized into a robust vision of psychotherapy. Therapeutic Applications of Neuroscience, Psychoneuroimmunology, and Epigenetics applies this approach to psychological problems such as anxiety and depression.

Recently a wide variety of feedback loops have been identified that when disrupted contribute to poor health and psychological disorders. This seminar addresses this challenge by synthesizing the groundbreaking research in psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics, combining them with the neuroscience of emotion, interpersonal, cognitive research, with psychotherapeutic approaches to offer an integrated vision of psychotherapy.

We begin by addressing the term “mind” because, though we use the term all the time, we had not agreed what it is. Now we know through research in neuroscience and psychology that the mind is not one thing but is composed of ongoing feedback between the mental operating networks. Our minds contribute to “self”-organization as we co-evolve within families and interpersonal interactions. What we encounter and how we take care of ourselves can change our brains, immune systems, and even turn on or off genes, resulting in mental health or ill health. Inflammation and autoimmune disorders are strongly associated with depression and anxiety. Therefore, the seminar offers a primer on the fields of psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics, combining it with the neuroscience of emotional, interpersonal, cognitive, dynamics, with psychotherapeutic approaches to offer an integrated vision of psychotherapy.

We explore the disrupted neural, immune system, and gene expression feedback loops to make sense of the causal relationships between stress, depression, and anxiety. The interaction between all these factors has been illuminated studies examining the effects of life style factors on the incidence of health and psychological problems. There are significant relationships between disruptions in immune system function, stress, insecure attachment, anxiety, depression, poor nutrition, poor quality sleep, physical inactivity, and neurophysiological dysregulation. We can now understand how the immune system, diet, brain structure, and even gut bacteria profoundly affect mental health through leaky gut syndrome and the inflammatory spiral. This complex spectrum of health conditions effects millions of people who seek psychotherapy.

Learning Objectives

Important information for learning objectives:

  • Explain the relationship between health and mental health
  • Discuss the interaction between the immune system, genes, brain dynamics, and mental health
  • Describe the pandemic facing the US with obesity and autoimmune disorders
  • Clarify about how early adverse experiences can effect long-term health
  • Explain how genes can be expressed or suppressed
  • Assess how the stress systems can be turned on and are difficult to turn off
  • Analyze how the immune system is intricately connected to brain systems
  • Rate how chronic and acute stress can dysregulate the immune system
  • Critique how autoimmune disorders contribute to depression, anxiety, and cognitive problems


The teaching goals/learning objectives:

  • Contrast: The overly compartmental field of psychotherapy of the 20th Century to the integrative vision of psychotherapy in the 21st Century
  • Distinguish: Between various health conditions and psychological disorders and their overlap
  • Explain: Explain how poor health contributes to poor mental health as well as visa versa
  • Analyze: How an overactive immune system contributes to depression and anxiety
  • Evaluate: How adverse childhood experiences contributes to long-term chronic health and mental health conditions and what to do about it.
  • Plan: Where to encourage lifestyle changes that improve health and mental health
  • Measure: The effect of poor sleep, diet, and lack of exercise contributions to changes in mental health
  • Choose: What psychotherapeutic intervention to use for various psychological conditions
  • Assess: The effects of various psychotherapeutic interventions
  • Select: Brain-based and evidence-based approaches with the most practical outcomes
  • Formulate: A treatment plan most appropriate for the individual based on her/his ethnicity, socio-economic position, and LGBTQ identification.

Instructor

Senior Instructor John Arden

John Arden, Ph.D., is the author of 14 books including Mind-Brain-Gene (2019, W.W.Norton & Company). He has a background in neuropsychology and is the director of training for mental health for the Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers in Northern California. In this capacity, he oversees one of the largest mental health training programs in the world, operating in 22 different medical centers throughout Northern California. Dr. Arden also practices part-time at Kaiser Permanente in Petaluma and San Rafael, and he served for several years as the chief psychologist at Kaiser Vallejo. He has taught in colleges, professional schools and universities.

Continuing Education Units

Continuing Education credit for this program is awarded by Commonwealth Educational Seminars (CES) for the following professions:

Psychologists: Commonwealth Educational Seminars is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Commonwealth Educational Seminars maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Psychologists receive 12.0 hours of continuing education credit upon completing this program.

Social Workers: Commonwealth Educational Seminars (CES) is entitled to award continuing education credit for Social Workers. Please visit CES CE CREDIT to see all states that are covered for Social Workers. CES maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Social Workers completing this program will receive 12.0 clinical hours of continuing education credit.

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists:
Commonwealth Educational Seminars (CES) is entitled to award continuing education credit for Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists. Please visit CES CE CREDIT to see all states that are covered for LMFTs. CES maintains responsibility for this program and its content. LMFTs completing this program will receive 12.0 hours of continuing education credit.

Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors: Commonwealth Educational Seminars (CES) is entitled to award continuing education credit for Licensed Professional Counselors/Licensed Mental Health Counselors. Please visit CES CE CREDIT to see all states that are covered for LPCs/LMHCs. CES maintains responsibility for this program and its content. LPCs/LMHCs completing this program will receive 12.0 hours of continuing education credit.

Nurses: As an APA approved provider, CES programs are accepted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

These courses can be utilized by nurses to renew their certification and will be accepted by the ANCC.

Every state Board of Nursing accepts ANCC approved programs except California and Iowa, however CES is also an approved Continuing Education provider by the California Board of Registered Nursing (Provider # CEP15567) which is also accepted by the Iowa Board of Nursing.

Please note: It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards to verify CE requirements for their state.

#Commonwealth Educational Seminars (CES) seeks to ensure equitable treatment of every person and to make every attempt to resolve grievances in a fair manner. Please submit a written grievance to: John Arden, PhD, [email protected]Grievances would receive, to the best of our ability, corrective action in order to prevent further problems.