The New Field of Contemplative Psychotherapy – Joseph Loizzo

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.