Joseph Loizzo – The New Field of Contemplative Psychotherapy

Outline

Discuss how each brain level has networks for self-enclosure versus social engagement and its implications for clinician treatment.

• Understand the cultural and evolutionary roots of human narcissism.
• Learn how self-enclosing patterns are a general cause of psychopathology.
• Review the cross-cultural consensus between modern psychotherapy and Buddhist psychology and the costs of this pathology.

Discover how self-enclosed networks fuel mental illness, while socially engaged networks support health and development.

• Review the biology of stress-protective versus socially engaged networks in the human brain.
• Relate this neurobiology to the psychopathology of common mental conditions including PTSD.
• Discuss the pivotal role of negativity bias in perpetuating self-enclosed processing.

Explain how mindfulness shifts neocortical absence to presence, compassion shifts limbic reactivity to resonance, and embodied methods shift brainstem stress reflexes to social resilience.

• Link the potential for treatment to the current revolution in neuroplasticity.
• Understand the science supporting the effect of contemplative mind-training practices on shifting from self-enclosed to socially engaged processing at all main levels of the brain,
• Explore the potential impact for psychotherapy and public mental health of widely integrating these practices into treatment and health education.