The developing mind and the resolution of trauma: Some ideas about information processing and an interpersonal neurobiology of psychotherapy

This chapter provides an overview of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the nature of the developing mind and how the unresolved effects of trauma may be resolved within psychotherapy. Following is a brief background of my introduction to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and Francine Shapiro, the founder and a leading pioneer in the field of EMDR.My work comes from an interdisciplinary approach that combines numerous independent fields, including attachment theory and research, cognitive neuroscience, complexity theory, developmental psychology and psychopathology, genetics, psycholinguistics, and the study of trauma. By weaving the findings from these varied disciplines together with clinical work as a child psychiatrist, I developed a conceptual framework that was published as a book, "The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience" (1999). This chapter offers a brief overview of this work and highlights ways in which this interpersonal neurobiology approach may help in understanding some possible mechanisms underlying trauma and its resolution.

Book Section

English

Daniel J. Siegel

Siegel, D. J. (2002). The developing mind and the resolution of trauma: Some ideas about information processing and an interpersonal neurobiology of psychotherapy. In F. Shapiro (Ed.), EMDR as an integrative psychotherapy approach: Experts of diverse orientations explore the paradigm prism (pp. 85-121). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association