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Polyvagal Theory – Seriously, Don’t Let the Title Fool You, Read This

  Article At a Glance: The work of Dr. Stephen Porges explains the role and functions of the Autonomic Nervous System in detecting cues of threat and safety. The Autonomic Nervous System is adaptive, responding to changing internal and external experiences, supporting both “connection” and “protection” to ensure our survival. Traditional forms of psychotherapy may fail because they do not account for Autonomic Nervous System functioning. We can hack our Autonomic Nervous System, to optimize wellness and performance, and here is how to do it. I received my doctorate in educational psychology with a specialization in neuropsychological assessment and intervention.   I spent 7 years in graduate school accumulating around 170 graduate school units studying psychology, behaviorism, and neuropsychological assessment (i.e., assessing brain-behavior relationships).   It was not, however, for another decade after my formal education ended that I came across the piece of ...
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Mindfulness Meditation

    Article At A Glance What mindfulness meditation is How mindfulness meditation works   The neuroscience behind mindfulness meditation and it’s benefit Avoiding a common pitfall In the coaching work I do with my clients, mindfulness meditation is the foundational practice to everything else that we do.   I started my mindfulness practice about 12 years ago though it was very inconsistent until perhaps 4 or 5 years ago.   The reason I was not able to stick with it for so long was that despite the wonderful benefits of mindfulness meditation I was reading about, it was extremely difficult, I was filled with doubts as to whether I was doing it right, and I was not noticing the benefits.   However, all of that changed over the last 4 or 5 years and I can not overstate the benefits daily mindfulness practice has on my wellbeing, relationships, and performance levels.   And because of these benefits, I work with clients to better understand min...
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Mitochondria

  Article At A Glance: ·        Mitochondria are the powerhouses charging every cell in our body. ·        The first thing we can do to optimize our biology is to eliminate things that damage mitochondria. ·        We can strengthen our mitochondria through diet, exercise, light exposure, and sleep.   Mitochondria are the powerhouses charging every cell in our body.   In fact, the average human cell has between 1000 and 2000 mitochondria.   That means our bodies are stuffed with a quadrillion of these power packs.   Within these powerhouses, intense explosions occur enabling the nutrients we consume (i.e., fat, protein, carbohydrates) to be converted into units of energy called adenosine triphosphate or ATP.   Yeah, that is right, we are going back to high school biology.   But if you were like me, and did not pay enough attention in class, do not worry,...
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The Biological Key to Well-Being and Optimal Performance

In this article I am going to dive into a topic we do not hear much about yet holds the key to our well-being and optimal performance.   The topic is our Autonomic Nervous System or ANS, central to our stress response system on one hand and our ability to fully engage in life on the other.   Article At A Glance: The Autonomic Nervous System or ANS works around the clock to support our survival and engagement in life. There are two branches of our ANS.  One detects "threats" and activates our "fight or flight" response and the other supports a calm state of social engagement and optimal performance. Heart Rate Variability or HRV is a biomarker of ANS functioning that we can easily measure and train to decrease stress, improve mental clarity, and optimize performance.   The Autonomic Nervous System or ANS: Simply put, the Autonomic Nervous System or ANS is a part of our nervous system responsible for carrying out bodily functions that do not require consciou...
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Finding Meaning and Purpose in What We Do

  What drives you?   What gets you out of bed in the morning and ready to take on the day?   What is the larger meaning and purpose behind what you do?   These questions drive at our sense of meaning and purpose, the fourth element of PERMA, and the answers provide powerful fuel for flourishing.    Article At A Glance: There are simple, easy to implement, strategies that improve one’s sense of wellbeing, relationships, and achievement. We can increase flourishing by identify our core character strengths and finding ways to apply them throughout our lives.  Take the Values in Action survey to identify your top 5 character strengths and find ways to apply to in your life today and throughout the week.   What are some of the activities, even very simple ones, that foster positive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors?   Many positive interventions are quite easy to do and, when used with an open mind and desire to experience change, can be very po...
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About Me

  I have a Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Educational Psychology and started my professional career as a school psychologist.    Since that time, I’ve been privileged to serve others in a number of different positions.    I’ve served as a special education administrator, school district director, and psychologist in private practice conducting neuropsychological evaluations and providing bio and neurofeedback training.    All of these experiences have been tremendously rewarding to me.   At the same time, I am endlessly curious and love learning and over the past few years I’ve had a growing interest in cultivating well-being and optimizing performance.  My interest is not about diagnosing and treating disorders, but about cultivating human flourishing.  My aim in writing this blog is to  share my interest in, and knowledge of, the nervous system (i.e., brain and body), along with techniques shown to optimize functioning, in se...
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The Negativity Bias and What You Can Do About It

We all want to feel good.   We want to have close relationships with our friends and family, a sense of meaning and purpose in the world, experience achievement, and to feel love and be loved.   All of these are part of human flourishing.   However, past events that have left an emotional mark on our psyche continue to cause us distress and get in the way of us flourishing, even when we are not consciously aware of them or their impact.   Fortunately, there are things we can due to heal past traumas and move down the path towards flourishing.   Article At A Glance: As humans, we have a biologically determined “negativity bias. \ All of us have experienced past distressing events that continue to impact our current functioning. Some of the ways we can do this are through acts of kindness, actively combating our negativity bias, and keeping a “gratitude journal.” As human beings we have what is called a “negativity bias.”    Our mind’s are naturally ...
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