Brain trauma and members of Congress

Much has changed since I worked in mental health 25 years ago. We have a much better understanding of how the brain actually works, the connections it makes and how it recovers from trauma.

Last weekend, I was able to get a ringside seat view of some of these changes. There is a yearly conference put on by the journal, The Psychotherapy Networker. The conference has the latest up-to-date research and practitioners. Three workshops I attended showed just how far the mental health field has moved, from Freud's "talking cure'" at the turn of the 20th century to MRI and PET scans that show us how the brain actually processes information and trauma.

The most fascinating was the work of marriage and couple therapists Julie and John Gottman. They learned about couples from watching and coding their interactions in an apartment set up for that purpose. What did they learn? Their research divides up the "masters" and "disasters" of couple relationships. Relationship masters have a high trust metric, and they have their partner's needs at heart. There is real empathy. "Negative verses positive communications," said the Gottmans, "are 5 to 1 for the masters and 8 to 1 for the disasters." The masters take criticism with "tell me more" or "that is interesting," while the disasters stonewall and have a "roach hotel of negative affect." In other words, you can get in, but they have a hard time of recovery and getting out.

Conflict is something every relationship experiences, say the Gottmans, but to resolve conflict in a relationship takes leaving self-interest and employing empathy. It means putting oneself in the other partner's shoes to resolve the conflict. Creating shared meaning is another principle of successful relationships. The Gottmans outline what they consider the four horseman of relationships that go south. They are: criticism, contempt (and sarcasm), defensiveness (playing the victim and not accepting responsibility) and stonewalling (often accompanied by refusing to continue to engage and resolve).

The Gottmans' most important findings in successful relationships are that everyone has baggage – often from early childhood attachment issues/mental injuries – and the masters of relationships don't let problems fester but repair relationship problems early. The Gottmans not only observed this in their research, they were also able to measure couple response by using heart-rate monitors. The research they conducted, and how they have put that research into action, is a far cry from the beginnings of couple and family therapy 50 years ago.

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As a journalist now in Washington, I couldn't help but wonder how some of this couples research could work with interactions between politicians in a very broken Washington.

The work of David Grand and his innovative "brain spotting technique" was also highlighted at the Psychotherapy Networker Conference. His work on trauma underlines a relatively new concept in healing past pain. David Grand's premise is, "where you look affects how you feel." He worked with a volunteer (who was a therapist) who had many family deaths. By talking, and focusing the attention of the person receiving the treatment, he is able to go deep in the brain, now correctly called the "the subcortical" structures.

Grand found that people discussing past trauma are looking toward something, not away from the therapist. It may be hard to believe, but this is a revolutionary concept in psychotherapy and the resolution of trauma. The new research on trauma goes hand-and-hand with the resolution of this. They have found that when people re-experience or think about past trauma, more parts of the brain are "lit up," as can be observed under a scanner.

Research has also shown that most people who have experienced trauma have left pieces of that trauma frozen inside of themselves. The new therapy based on this brain research helps people unfreeze so they can access their own strength and healing. People hold memories in their bodies, says master trauma therapist and researcher Bessel Van Der Kolk, author of "The Body Keeps Score." The new mind/body therapies are not based on gut feelings but actual observation and research. This is a change in the psychotherapy field.

What transpired at this conference is great news for anyone concerned with maximizing effectiveness with other people or even the community of trillions of cells within us. I only wish that some members of Congress had attended the Psychotherapy Networker symposium and put some of the new mental health knowledge to work in how they legislate, talk to each other and run the country. The new research would be valuable to them.

Media wishing to interview Ellen Ratner, please contact [email protected].