E147 Dr. Fredric Schiffer Dual Brain Psychology
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 147
Date: November 19, 2024
Participants: John Webster, Riley Thompson and Cameron Earnshaw
Guest: Dr. Fredric Schiffer
Start Times and Segments:
[0:00:16] What’s On Your Mind: John asks Riley about the ways people are connected to screens. She’s more familiar with platforms like Tik Tok, Youtube and more.
[0:09:36] Expanding Minds Interview: [Mental Wellness] Dr. Frederic Schiffer discusses dual brain psychology, which comes out of rigorous scientific research. Split brain studies show that each brain hemisphere can have a mind of its own. One of them could be troubled by past traumas, while the other is quite healthy. Victims of trauma often judge themselves as inadequate and feel they are weak. The purpose of dual brain psychology is to treat the trauma – to help the immature side realize that they were not responsible and they are not inadequate. They were traumatized. There’s a difference. An idea from dual brain psychology is to get the healthy side to be a co-therapist to help treat the trauma in the more troubled side. Initially the two sides are sabotaging each other. They can become cooperative.
[0:29:11] Running Popup: It popped into John’s head – “I won’t worry about legacy”. He’s sticking with it.
[0:31:22] Adventures of the Starving Artist: The group Massive Attack is taking active steps to help the environment on an upcoming tour. Cam tell us about this great idea.
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Dr. Schiffer – Dual brain psychology comes out of rigorous research, specifically split brain studies. They showed that each brain hemisphere can have a mind of its own. I discovered during research at Harvard that each brain hemisphere can have a mind of its own. The left brain and right brain can have different minds. One of them could be troubled by past traumas, while the other is quite healthy. The idea of dual brain psychotherapy is to get the healthy mind to be a co-therapist to help treat the trauma in the more troubled mind.
Dr. Schiffer – The troubled side could be in either the left or the right brain hemisphere.
Dr. Schiffer – The trouble mind tends to not like itself. If it has a tendency to abuse substances, then they will have cravings. On the other side, the cravings go way down and it likes itself and it feels good about itself.
Dr. Schiffer – Trauma often stimulates the immature side. If a person had severe trauma, then it’s likely that the immature side dominates. A person might not realize they have a healthy side until we elicit it.
Dr. Schiffer – Trauma does not mean necessarily sexual molestation in children or beatings, which are profoundly traumatic. Most people I see in my suburban practice are people who had parents who are distant and they felt unloved, or maybe they had a sibling or a neighbour who was a bully, or girls who were critical and mocking. These things are also traumas, but people don’t always see them as traumas. They often blame themselves. Children always blame themselves, for example if their parents get divorced.
Dr. Schiffer – An initial trauma can lead to poor school performance. Then the teacher gets angry with them. They have trouble building healthy relationships with peers. They wind up in relationships with troubled peers. They get into alcohol or drugs. By that time, they forgot that they were traumatized. They don’t see that a trauma led to an adult problem.
Dr. Schiffer – When someone is bullied, the victim often judges themself and feels that they’re weak. They feel inadequate, because they couldn’t protect themself. Feelings of inadequacy are common with trauma.
Dr. Schiffer – Children always blame themselves, including for pain that they feel or anything that goes wrong.
Dr. Schiffer – The purpose of dual brain psychology is to treat the trauma – to help the immature side realize that they were not responsible and they are not inadequate. They were traumatized. There’s a difference.
Dr. Schiffer – Being able to feel a sense of competency and wellbeing leads to a greater sense of wellbeing.
Dr. Schiffer – There are different techniques for treating the troubled side. One of them is to teach it that it was traumatized and it wasn’t its fault, but also to let it see a view of the world from the other side – to let it see a view of the world out the other side – to let it experience the world through the mature side, which feels well.
Dr. Schiffer – Initially the two sides are sabotaging each other. They become cooperative after working with me.
Guest Information: Dr Fredric Schiffer has a wealth of experience in psychiatry and is a best-selling author, psychiatrist and part-time assistant professor at Harvard. He’s on a mission to help people understand their anxiety, addiction and trauma and to offer them a proven method to improve their wellbeing. Problems arise from early traumas. Very often, the trauma is not recognized. Dr. Schiffer wrote the book Goodbye Anxiety, Depression, Addiction & PTSD: The Life-Changing Science of Dual-Brain Psychology. He takes an in-depth look at the science behind Dual-Brain Psychology while offering practical tips and tools to try it for yourself. he discovered that the brain is made up of two minds which are competing for dominance. When the immature and troubled half of the brain is treated, Dual-Brain Psychology techniques can curb anxiety, depression, PTSD, and addiction, and improve psychological wellbeing.
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle, Noura, Julie and Riley