The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

With a copious amount of citations to support the narrative, this book provides so much insight into the healing of the travails of the human condition through the special relationship of therapy.

Louis Cozolino is an American psychologist and professor of psychology at Pepperdine University. He holds degrees in theology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA. Cozolino has published numerous articles, several books, his latest being The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy Healing the Social Brain, Third Edition 2017. I was first introduced to Cozolino’s work in 2010 in my Master’s program in Clinical Psychology. I read his first edition of The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy Healing the Social Brain, and was awed and inspired by his teachings on the neuroplasticity of the brain and how much our social brains are built and rebuilt by our experiences and relationships.Cozolino creatively uses clinical examples and juxtaposes them with neuroscience research, showing how our nervous systems develop and evolve within the context of our relationships and experiences. He takes challenging scientific research and concepts and explains them in ways that are easy to understand and implement. He has also developed new concepts like social synapse, the medium through which we are linked together into larger organisms such as families, tribes, societies, and the human species as a whole. He explains how physiological and emotional synchronies occur through unconscious processes like proximity, touch, mirror neurons, pupil dilation, posture, and micro-expressions. Cozolino uses the term sociostasis to describe how individuals regulate each other's biology, psychology, and states of mind across the social synapse. He organizes the book into six parts, and 22 chapters. The chapters are filled with an expansive overview of the human experience. They consist of fascinating material including the entangled histories of neurology and psychology, building and rebuilding the brain, the human nervous system from neurons to neural networks, from neural networks to narratives, the social brain, shaping attachment schemas, the executive brain, along with the anxious and fearful brain, early traumatic stress, the fragmentation of self and others, biochemical dysregulation and neural network dissociation, narcissism and pathological caretaking, the evolutionary necessity of psychotherapy, stimulating neural plasticity, the psychotherapist as neuroscientist, and how people transform via their relationships and experiences.In The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, Cozolino addresses anxiety, trauma, and co-dependency from a neuroscience perspective. He describes four key principles for enhancing neuroplasticity in the human brain complex, including secure relationships, a low to moderate level of physiological arousal, a balance of emotional and cognitive processing, and the construction of coherent narratives about the self, relationships, and the world. Anyone looking for a deeper understanding of what it means to be human and/or how to improve the quality of one’s life and relationships will be powerfully equipped with both the knowledge, and tools Cozolinos offers in this transformational, life, and relationship evolutionary book.

Required text for a class I am taking. The book is informational, great deal and knowledge. Great text tounderstand people who have been impacted by trauma.

Brains are so amazing and complicated! Every step of the way this book links us back to how intricate the brain works with our behavior.

Gets really deep into the neuroscience and that makes some tough reading in places. Still, the author manages to keep it lively, most definitely interesting and informative. A wonderful read for anyone interested in neuroscience and psychotherapy.

One of the best MSW books I have read so far. Lots of interesting info written easily to read and to understand. Highly recommended

needed it for school and glad i was able to rent at the low price

Extremely well-written and organized--a must read not only for professionals in psychotherapy but anyone interested in behavioral interventions.

Fantastic, easy to read intro to the subject of neuroscience and psychology/psychotherapy. I’m about to start a masters in neuroscience and psychology of mental health so am reading everything I can to get a good overview. Really good read. Handed it to my Dad to read a few pages and he’s now reading the whole book.

Excellent book. The only criticism I have is lack of images of the brain. For visual learners like myself, it would gave been useful to have a picture reference when reading the description of the various brain areas. I had to keep searching online. I recommend it.

An incredibly comprehensive and fascinating exploration of the interactions between psychotherapy and neuroscience. This book is a must for any therapist to expend their knowledge in the area of neurobiology.

Extremely important to base modern psychology on neuroscience and get rid of old myths but most of the ref. in the book is more than ten years old. An updated version would do the job better

Dr. Louis Cozolino's book, "The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, 3rd Edition", is simply amazing. This is the most helpful book on the subject of neurobiology and psychotherapy that I have read. It has many helpful updates since discoveries in neuroscience are ongoing. Dr. Cozolino has a remarkable ability to clearly convey complex concepts about neuroscience and how it applies to understanding the process of psychotherapy. He is a world-class therapist, so his expertise on how neuroscience applies to psychotherapy makes this book an absolutely invaluable resource - I think it should be required reading for therapists. If there is one book on the subject that I would suggest, this would be it.