Dr. Diana Monama Clinical Psychologist

02/02/2018

The article below is explains the importance of play in childhood and adulthood. There is scientific evidence that playing makes us better/well adjusted individuals. Therefore, let’s continue playing.

Play In Childhood
Free play develops the neural connections in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the brain’s executive control center, which has a critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems, according to Prof. Sergio Pellis, professor at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. As children play their brains build new circuits in the PFC to help it navigate complex social interactions.
“The function of play is to build pro-social brains, social brains that know how to interact with others in positive ways,” says Jaak Panksepp at Washington State University. When playing and activating the neocortex, epigenetic changes are occurring that changes the brain. In the study of rats Panksepp found that “of the 1,200 genes that we measured, about one-third of them were significantly changed simply by having a half-hour of play.”
Play In Adulthood
“We don’t lose the need for novelty and pleasure as we grow up,” says Scott G. Eberle, Ph.D, editor of the American Journal of Play. Lack of play may be an important factor in predicting criminal behavior among murderers, while playing together can help couples rekindle their relationship and explore other forms of emotional intimacy, according to psychiatrist Stuart Brown from the National Institute for Play and author of the book Play.

31/01/2018

Louis Cozolino talks about why therapy works.
Free Download http://bit.ly/2jbiIoD
In this article Louis Cozolino talks about why therapy works by looking at three fundamental mechanisms of brain, mind, and relationships:

1. The brain is a social organ of adaptation, shaped by evolution to connect with and change through interactions with others. Psychotherapy leverages the ability of brains to attune and learn from one another in the service of adaptive change. This intimate interaction between human connection and learning has been forged over the eons in the crucible of social evolution.
2. Change depends upon the activation of neurplastic processes. For any change to occur, our brains have to undergo structural changes that will be reflected in our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Thus, the success of psychotherapy depends upon the therapist’s ability to stimulate neuroplasticity in the brains of clients—to make new connections, inhibit others, and link previously dissociated neural networks.
3. Together, we co-create narratives that support neural and psychic integration while creating a template to guide experience into the future. Through the co-construction of coherent self-stories, we are able to enhance our self-reflective capacity, creativity, and maturation. It is especially valuable in coming to understand our past, for the consolidation of identity, and to heal from trauma.

http://bit.ly/2jbiIoD

27/01/2018

The complexities of life and relationships. A worthwhile read.

Making the best of a bad situation

26/09/2017

Depression. That word we throw around so easily nowadays. That word we use to describe anything from a bad day to an overwhelming inability to live life. But as anyone with depression knows, it is much more than any one word