27/04/2011 Reptilian Brain

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Reptilian Brain
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27/04/2011 Reptilian Brain

By: Dr. Suzanne LaCombe, September 2006.

Updated: November 22, 2007.

The Reptilian Brain: "The emotional alarm center for the brain".

Wonder why there's a reptile as a mascot for this site? The reptilian brain controls much more of our
behaviour than we realize--part of my objective of this site is to emphasize this fact.

This is one of the key insights from body psychotherapy. When you calm the reptilian brain, you have more
control over your thoughts and your intentional behaviour.

Our brainstem is a top-of-the-line reptilian brain.

The reptilian brain is located in the brain stem and both terms are used synonymously.1
Phylogenetically-speaking, it was the first part of the modern brain to develop in human
evolution. It operates behind the scenes, regulating our survival needs: food, oxygen, heart
rate, blood pressure and reproduction, among many others.

The brainstem is like a bodyguard who's always watching your back, constantly scanning the environment for
potential threats. The reptilian brain also decides whether you will move into fight or flight. The thinking brain
is too slow for such an important task.

So for example, when a 90 mile an hour curve ball's coming at you, it's the reptilian brain that reflexively jerks
your head out of the way before you even realize what’s happening.

We can't leave our reactions up to the thinking side of the brain. We'd still be back there lying on the playing
field wondering what happened and how we got that lump on the head!

When you think of your "instincts" think, reptilian brain. It's responsible for our survival related functions like:

breathing
digestion
circulation
elimination
temperature
fight or flight
movement, posture and balance.

The Reptilian Brain and Counseling

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Harness the energy of the "24/7 bodyguard" and put your counseling on the fast track!

The reptilian brain is an ancient beast. It was developed over 100 million years ago. The higher brain or the
neocortex came along a mere 40,000 years ago. So, when the reptilian brain is on alert, it's pretty hard for a
youngster like our neocortex to tell a 100 million year old brain to behave!2

One of the insights we've learned from body psychotherapy is that hardship in counseling is needlessly
provoked if the reptilian brain isn't calmed down first. That is, it's very difficult to dig into our psyche (e.g. and
explore childhood issues) when the reptilian brain is calling the shots.

However, when the nervous system is regulated and balanced, it far easier to move through our emotions.

Emotionally triggering material will be that much more difficult if the reptilian brain is activated. When you are
suffering from high anxiety--by definition--your activation level is high and the reptilian brain is controlling too
much of how you will respond to events in your life.

As an aside, the more the reptilian brain has learned from early infancy experiences and subsequent traumas
(both physical and emotional) the higher our activation will be. For many people, high activation will show up
in anxiety symptoms. And as I have described elsewhere, chronically high activation (sympathetic arousal) can
lead to depression (parasympathetic dorsal vagal).

What's often difficult for us to accept is the fact that the brainstem (in partnership with the limbic system),
determines and conditions a great deal of our behaviour. The higher our level of activation, the more this is
likely to be the case.

As human beings we like to believe that we're "rational", that our actions are based on thought, not "blind
emotion". There is no such thing actually as blind emotion. Our emotions have rational explanations even of
we cannot locate the source.

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My Personal Musings

I think some people have not taken up counseling for the very reason that they suspect it will make them feel
worse. There may be some truth to this. My guess is that their reluctance is related to the idea of being thrust
into material before they're ready.

If a therapist starts to probe emotionally triggering material before the nervous system has settled sufficiently,
the level of activation will increase. One may even experience an increase in anxiety symptoms!

How do you know when you're ready?

If you're agitated or racked with anxiety then the conditions are not optimal for deep emotional work. When
your relationship is developed sufficiently between you and your therapist, you will naturally step into the
material and feel sufficently safe in doing so. When this is happening for you then the conditions are optimal
for change to occur.

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One of my inspirations for developing this website was the discovery of friends and colleagues who had
undergone a course of treatment and--from my perspective--seemed worse off.

I acknowledge that it isn't easy to assess when you're getting good therapy from not-so-good therapy. The
reality is that one therapist cannot simply know all there is to know about working with everyone.

Hopefully, armed with enough information on this and other counseling websites, consumers of mental health
services will be able to make good decisions on their choices in psychotherapy.

Reference

Levine, Peter, A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.

McLean, Paul, D. [1990]. The Triune Brain in Evolution. New York: Plenum Press.

Notes

1"...the portion of the brain that is continuous with the spinal cord
and comprises the medulla oblongata, pons,
mid-brain and parts of the hypothalamus; controls reflexes and such essential internal mechanisms as
respiration and heartbeat." Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionay (2006).

2Dr.Daniel Siegel made this same point at his lecture, "Psychotherapy from the inside out: The brain of the
mindful therapist", at the Justice Institute in New Westminster, BC., in November 8-9 2007.

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Glenn (Coffs Harbour, Australia)

Your suggestion that the reptilian brain must be at ease in order for counselling to be effective, reminded me
of scientology auditing sessions I used to have. Before each session there is a checklist that must be satisfied
including being well rested, not hungry or thirsty, not too hot or cold, and not troubled by a PTP (present time
problem), which could distract the person from participating fully in the session.Only once these criteria were
satisfied was the session begun.
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I have since had sessions with proper psychologists, and none of these basics were checked by the therapist.
In hindsight the value of each session depended on these 'reptilian brain' factors, especially when the therapist
was new to me and therefore not easily trusted.

Glenn

Frances (Ontario, Canada)

I am enthralled.

Frances

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