Being there for your kids - MPT Changes Your Brain

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

What's going on with you in here is equally important to what's going on out there. Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are generated from adaptive brain functioning. Mentalligent psychotherapy (MPT) is designed to optimize adaptive brain functioning. Here's an example.  Blessings, Jon

Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Let's talk about changing your brain. Wait, what? We can do that? So, our brain is the most complex organ in our bodies. We house 14 to 16 billion neural cells in our brain. Each cell carries neurochemical signals from one to another, giving action to our thoughts and feelings. Many signals are automatic, where our bodily functions operate. Many also are targeted by our conscious thoughts.

thought, these are the signals in our brains that we can control that we can change. Actually, changing your brain's neuropathways is the positive outcome of counseling and psychotherapy. Intelligent psychotherapy is a means of getting there. For example, let me give voice to 10-year-old Brandon's brain. His 7-year-old brother Jordan got home from school first and started gaming on their desktop computer. Brandon saw prefrontal cortex vision, what his little brother was doing. doing. Hey, he thought, he's messing with my stuff. Transfer to the hippocampus for memory comparison. Just like he always does. Well, hippocampus sorting. He won't get away with it this time.

Hippocampus choosing fight option. I'll show him, transfer to the amygdala firing up anger. Brandon then stomped over to the computer, yanked Jordan out of his chair and shouted, my turn, twerp, get lost. Transfer to the prefrontal cortex analysis, poor executive function. verbal and tactile responses. Now, fast forward 20 years, and Brandon is addressing his anger management issues in outpatient psychotherapy. You know, he begins to recount an exchange he had with a co-worker. This new hire Davidson has only been with our marketing firm for a month.

We were discussing rehashing ideas for a new ad campaign at the water cooler yesterday morning. I came up with an original approach, and we joked and laughed about how it might be received in the staff meeting. Well, Brandon continued, Don't you know that later that very afternoon during our staff meeting, this jerk pitched my idea without giving me any credit, and the boss loved it. Prefrontal cortex auditory.

Wow, how did you handle that? I asked. Well, I tell you what I wanted to do, transfer to hippocampus. I wanted to jump across the table, wrap my hands around his neck, and choke the truth out of him, that it was my idea, and he was taking credit that was meant for me. hippocampus sorting, 10-year-old memory flashed, fight option, transfer to the amygdala, rage chosen, transfer to the prefrontal cortex, analysis, unhealthy executive function, visual,

auditory, tactile response. Now, instead, I heard his boot-licking, prefrontal cortex auditory, took several deep breaths, transferred to hippocampus freeze option, gave myself a pep talk, transfer to the amygdala, reassurance, calm, commitment to change, and smile. at Davidson across the table, transfer to the prefrontal cortex, analysis, healthy executive function, visual, tactile response. This therapeutic outcome, borne out of multiple sessions of intelligence psychotherapy, sheds light on how concerted therapeutic intervention can generate new neuropathways for specific circumstances, the expression of neuroplasticity. Over time, and with much concerted practice, the former neuropathways wither for lack of use, the newer ones

strengthen, generating reinforcement, and then they thrive as the new normal for the patient. In my book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life, I share with you the process of changing your brain to reach your goals. Blessings, Dr. John. If my comments stir questions of your own, contact me through my website at www.org for my kids.com or email me at John Robinson 0.0.000 at Bellsouth.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson. licensed clinical psychologist and author of Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting and my new book and a healing journey overcoming adversity on the path of the good life. And this has been Teachable Moments. Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at

AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.