Keynote Presenter

This workshop will offer an interdisciplinary view that draws on a wide range of sciences to explore how trauma impacts the developing mind.  By viewing the mind as arising from both neural processes in the body—the embodied brain—as well as from interactions within relationships, we can see how trauma within families in the form of neglect or abuse can shape the ways in which the brain develops and the mind arises.  The impact of developmental trauma on the regulatory functions of the brain—the circuits that shape affect, attention, and behavior as well as the epigenetic molecules that control gene expression—will be reviewed.  Ways in which therapeutic interventions can harness the power of neuroplasticity, or how the brain changes in response to experience, will be discussed. At the heart of healing is integration that enables differentiated regions to be linked to one another.   Integration promotes harmony and brings the individual from the chaos and rigidity of posttraumatic states into resolution, growth, resilience and healing.

 

Attendees will:

1. Learn how trauma affects the integrative functioning of the brain.

2. Understand how developmental trauma and neglect impair the growth of integrative fibers.

3. Learn how psychotherapy can promote the growth of integration. 

Daniel J. Siegel received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry.  He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA, studying family interactions with an emphasis on how attachment experiences influence emotions, behavior, autobiographical memory and narrative.

 

Dr. Siegel is currently clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine where he is on the faculty of the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center. An award-winning educator, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of several honorary fellowships. Dr. Siegel is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational organization, which offers online learning and in-person lectures that focus on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. His psychotherapy practice includes children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. He serves as the Medical Director of the LifeSpan Learning Institute and on the Advisory Board of the Blue School in New York City, which has built its curriculum around Dr. Siegel’s Mindsight approach.

 

Dr. Siegel has published extensively for the professional audience.  He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and the internationally acclaimed text, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (Guilford, 1999).  This book introduces the field of interpersonal neurobiology, and has been utilized by a number of clinical and research organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Department of Justice, The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Microsoft and Google. The Developing Mind, Second Edition was published in 2012.  Dr. Siegel serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over three dozen textbooks.  The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being (Norton, 2007) explores the nature of mindful awareness as a process that harnesses the social circuitry of the brain as it promotes mental, physical, and relational health. The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration (Norton, 2010), explores the application of focusing techniques for the clinician’s own development, as well as their clients' development of mindsight and neural integration. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind (Norton, 2012), explores how to apply the interpersonal neurobiology approach to developing a healthy mind, an integrated brain, and empathic relationships.

 

Dr. Siegel’s book, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam, 2010), offers the general reader an in-depth exploration of the power of the mind to integrate the brain and promote well-being. He has written three parenting books: Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (Tarcher/Penguin, 2003) with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., and the two The New York Times bestsellers The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind (Random House, 2011) and No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind (Bantam, 2014), with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.  Dr. Siegel's The New York Times bestseller Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain (Tarcher, 2013), explores how brain development impacts teenagers’ behavior and relationships.

 

Dr. Siegel's unique ability to make complicated scientific concepts exciting has led him to be invited to address diverse local, national and international groups of mental health professionals, neuroscientists, corporate leaders, educators, parents, public administrators, healthcare providers, policy-makers, mediators, judges, and clergy. He has lectured for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, London's Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and TEDx. He lives in Southern California with his family.