Eight Key Brain Areas of Mental Health and Illness

by Jennifer Sweeton

Bridging the gap between neuroscience and clinical therapy.

In this handbook, clinical psychologist and bestselling author Jennifer Sweeton details the eight main areas of the brain affected by mental illness, how brain changes show up in the therapy room as symptoms and behaviors, and the types of therapies and psychotherapeutic techniques research has shown can heal the brain.

Areas covered are the thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, insula, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

No longer will you need to feel unsure when referencing basic brain functions related to behavioral health. After reading this book, you will feel confident and excited about your ability to take a client-centered, strategic, brain-based approach to treatment planning. Chapter summaries and tables of brain region, mental health condition, and therapeutic approach are included for easy reference.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2021

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that for someone who is not on speaking terms with the parts and functions of brain, having this in paperback would have been much easier to follow. I may invest in one and read it then again.
She gives an overview of the functions of each of the 8 key brain areas, with the illnesses and conditions they are linked with and exploring the connections and evidence, or the lack there of an need for more studies to get robust evidence for further understanding.
Quite fascinating to think about the direc correlations of what may or may not work for treatment for mental health conditions depending on what area of the brain is affected.

[Harriet Shearsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right, I listened to this whilst I was walking the dog and honestly? I don’t think I took anywhere near as much of it in as I would have liked but I found it… dull. I’ve given it 4 stars because I think the issue was me and my expectation. I was under the impression that it would be a great book for helping therapists to work with clients using neuroscience, but it wasn’t really. It was more just explaining the neuroscience (ok, but not something I’m truly gripped by which is what made it tough) and which therapies work best. Not much more. My misinterpretation!

[Reuben Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ about 30%. It was quite interesting, but I’d need to read it with my eyes to properly take it in, and probably take some notes to be able to use it for assignments (which was why I borrowed it) which I thoroughly couldn’t be arsed to do at this time, so maybe I’ll come back to it at some point but for now it’s a no.

[Luke Latchman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not the target audience so perhaps it’s better than I gave it credit for. I like learning about the brain but I felt this heavy approach of ‘this is this part of the brain and this is what it does’ was quite difficult to follow. For me at least! I liked hearing the smart talk but I cant say I held onto the information sadly! Thanks for the interesting listen though!

[Jyoti Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opener!

[Alison Shely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and I loved it! I’m exciting to put this into my own practice

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic overview of how neuroscience can explain psychological dysfunction.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is a good reference resource and supports the brain training card deck.