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Keeping the Brain in Mind: Practical Neuroscience for Coaches, Therapists, and Hypnosis Practitioners by Shawn Carson (18-Apr-2014) Paperback
Winner of the 2014 Pen and Quill Award IACT/ IMDHAThe latest revelations from neuroscience can transform the work you do, as a coach, hypnotist, or therapist, in ways that make measurable changes in the brain. This book will teach you how to integrate and utilize the research to explain and empower changes in habituated patterns of thought, feeling and behavior.This book makes neuroscience practical. You will learn the neural mechanisms underlying common problems and how to transform them using techniques drawn from hypnosis, mindfulness, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Keeping the brain in mind will make your sessions more exciting and dynamic for both you and your clients.From the Foreword by Lincoln C. Bickford M.D. Ph.D.Keeping the Brain in Mind is that rare gem of a book which seamlessly and accessibly delivers deep theoretical understanding with savvy practical guidance on how to apply it. And it does so with a spirit of curiosity and wonder towards this marvelous instrument, the brain-mind, through which we experience our world. It is a textbook, manual, and mental playground all-in-one. After many years studying the brain as a neuroscientist and learning to work with the mind as a psychiatrist and meditator, it is a refreshing surprise to read something that teaches me equally about both, and which brings new insights into their interplay. In particular, the authors present a series of intuitive and plausible models for how the brain and mind co-create one another, can be understood as metaphors for one another, and can be used to reshape one another bidirectionally in feedback loops for positive change.I’m not sure exactly where their ‘inside scoop’ is, but Shawn and Melissa have managed to identify most of the developments in neuroscience that I've found most interesting over the years -- such as neuroplasticity, memory reconsolidation, and mirror neurons -- plus a whole lot more. Either they don’t sleep and spend nights poring over the neuroscience literature, or they have an uncanny radar for sorting the wheat from the chaff! They home in on those discoveries that can provide handles by which to understand the most efficient neural avenues to effect change and explain them in straightforward lay terms, they elucidate plausible mechanisms by which many ‘old standard’ NLP patterns -- including the coaching pattern, swish, and fast-phobia cure -- operate on the brain, and they suggest several new technical approaches. They then also flip these neural principles around, translating them into metaphors by which to help clients consolidate and makes sense of their gains and inspire ongoing self-discovery. I would recommend this book even to expert scientists and therapists, expecting that it will reshape, rewire, reconsolidate, and re-enrich understandings and enthusiasm for our fascinating field; it certainly has for me!
- GenresNonfiction
Unknown Binding
First published March 24, 2014
56 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 26, 2018
This is a book of pseudoscience. This becomes obvious from the beginning. After the first few chapters, I gave up on the book because of its promotion of unscientific practices and its misuse of science to support the book’s premises and practices. Let me provide some examples of the poor thinking the authors demonstrate.
The authors state, early in their Forward to the book, that they ‘… are not neuroscientists. Not even close.’ At least they are honest about this, and it shows when you start reading.
Then there’s this: ‘When we describe a process, such as the “Visual Squash,” as a possible method to stimulate hemispheric balance, please understand that we are theorizing.’ What they mean is they are guessing. It then becomes obvious where they are coming from when they go on to say, ‘… there has not been a lot of research on the neuroscience involved in NLP or hypnosis. We hope this will change, but we are not holding our breath. Instead, we are stimulating our brains with all the cool implications that the current thinking in neuroscience means for our work and us.’ This is an admission that they are coming from a particular perspective (NLP and hypnosis) and reading into the neuroscience what they want to see by taking neuroscience concepts as metaphors that suit them in their justification of NLP and hypnosis practice. In fact, there has been very little research on the claims of NLP. These authors seem to think that, if something sounds like what they think, it supports what they think.
A little later in the book, in a chapter on neuroplasticity, they state: ‘Some of these techniques that will be covered in this book are: • Bilateral stimulation • Meridian tapping • Peripheral vision • Backward spin • Heart-coherence breathing Teaching techniques such as these to your clients will allow them to truly discover self-directed neuroplasticity for themselves.’ These all sound scientific but, from what I can find, none of them are backed up with scientific investigation. There are references to scientific studies, but when read carefully, they are usually not studies of the techniques under discussion but rather the authors taking studies that seem related to various concepts in NLP and applying them analogously or metaphorically. There is no reference list or bibliography in the book. And the authors seem to assume that readers are going to be those who already practice NLP, hypnosis, coaching, or other therapies based on some form of NLP. In other words, they are preaching to the converted.
This book seems to be mostly taking NLP practices and overlaying neuroscience in metaphorical ways to make it all sound legitimate. The language and approach of the book are typical NLP, using jargon, flowery language, and positive statements which, when scrutinised, don’t say a whole lot.
A reminder: I stopped reading after the first few chapters. I couldn’t bear to read any more because of what I found in these first few chapters. If you are going to read it, read it critically and carefully. Please understand, I’m not saying there is nothing useful in the book — there may well be. But from my perspective, it is a whole lot of pseudoscience which makes it hard to pick fact from fiction.
The authors state, early in their Forward to the book, that they ‘… are not neuroscientists. Not even close.’ At least they are honest about this, and it shows when you start reading.
Then there’s this: ‘When we describe a process, such as the “Visual Squash,” as a possible method to stimulate hemispheric balance, please understand that we are theorizing.’ What they mean is they are guessing. It then becomes obvious where they are coming from when they go on to say, ‘… there has not been a lot of research on the neuroscience involved in NLP or hypnosis. We hope this will change, but we are not holding our breath. Instead, we are stimulating our brains with all the cool implications that the current thinking in neuroscience means for our work and us.’ This is an admission that they are coming from a particular perspective (NLP and hypnosis) and reading into the neuroscience what they want to see by taking neuroscience concepts as metaphors that suit them in their justification of NLP and hypnosis practice. In fact, there has been very little research on the claims of NLP. These authors seem to think that, if something sounds like what they think, it supports what they think.
A little later in the book, in a chapter on neuroplasticity, they state: ‘Some of these techniques that will be covered in this book are: • Bilateral stimulation • Meridian tapping • Peripheral vision • Backward spin • Heart-coherence breathing Teaching techniques such as these to your clients will allow them to truly discover self-directed neuroplasticity for themselves.’ These all sound scientific but, from what I can find, none of them are backed up with scientific investigation. There are references to scientific studies, but when read carefully, they are usually not studies of the techniques under discussion but rather the authors taking studies that seem related to various concepts in NLP and applying them analogously or metaphorically. There is no reference list or bibliography in the book. And the authors seem to assume that readers are going to be those who already practice NLP, hypnosis, coaching, or other therapies based on some form of NLP. In other words, they are preaching to the converted.
This book seems to be mostly taking NLP practices and overlaying neuroscience in metaphorical ways to make it all sound legitimate. The language and approach of the book are typical NLP, using jargon, flowery language, and positive statements which, when scrutinised, don’t say a whole lot.
A reminder: I stopped reading after the first few chapters. I couldn’t bear to read any more because of what I found in these first few chapters. If you are going to read it, read it critically and carefully. Please understand, I’m not saying there is nothing useful in the book — there may well be. But from my perspective, it is a whole lot of pseudoscience which makes it hard to pick fact from fiction.
February 6, 2021
Excellent boom
I think I’ll be reviewing different parts of this book again and again because it’s so good. I highlighted more in this book than any other. The change work the authors talk about is real because as a hypnotist I have seen it too. It’s real insightful to go further in depth to know how it works in the brain and mind. I highly recommend reading this.
I think I’ll be reviewing different parts of this book again and again because it’s so good. I highlighted more in this book than any other. The change work the authors talk about is real because as a hypnotist I have seen it too. It’s real insightful to go further in depth to know how it works in the brain and mind. I highly recommend reading this.
November 6, 2017
Can't wait to study with one of the co-authors (Melissa Tiers) this month in November! Recommended for all who provide change work (therapists, etc).
March 14, 2021
Good not amazing
Interesting and nice concepts
You can see they have both foundation in nlp as they solutions are all based on that
Interesting and nice concepts
You can see they have both foundation in nlp as they solutions are all based on that
April 2, 2024
Really great knowledge and examples. Needs a little more editing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews