Systems Psychology

Images and sounds of war, natural disasters, and human-made devastation explicitly surround us and implicitly leave their imprint in our muscles, our belly and heart, our nervous systems, and the brains in our skulls. We each experience more digital data than we are capable of processing in a day, and this is leading to a loss of empathy and human contact. This loss of leisurely, sustained, face-to-face connection is making true presence a rare experience for many of us, and is neurally ingraining fast pace and split attention as the norm.

This guide offers the most comprehensive insight and advice into coping with nervous stress. Sufferers of nervous illness regard Self Help for Your Nerves as their bible – many believe that if they had found it earlier they would have been saved years of unnecessary suffering. Dr Claire Weekes looks at: how the nervous system works, what is nervous illness, common factors in the development of nervous illness and recurring nervous attacks. Plus important chapters on depression, sorrow, guilt and disgrace, obsessions, sleeplessness, confidence, loneliness and agoraphobia.

Written by a cult survivor and renowned expert on cults and totalitarianism, Terror, Love and Brainwashing draws on the author's 25 years of study and research to explain how almost anyone, given the right set of circumstances, can be radically manipulated to engage in otherwise incomprehensible and often dangerous acts.

By presenting the autism diagnosis through the lens of a disordered nervous system-that is, by applying Polyvagal Theory-this book opens new avenues for intervention and treatment, while challenging age-old assumptions of what autism means and how it presents itself.

Hope and light are on the horizon to help clients overcome the challenges of healing and releasing the pain of relational trauma. The highly acclaimed Transcending Trauma explores a unique, compassionate, and evidence-based approach to resolving complex and dissociative trauma. In this transformative audiobook, Frank Anderson, MD, masterfully details an IFS path to therapy that allows clients to access their inherent capacity for healing — called self-energy — while also helping them welcome, as opposed to manage, the extreme emotions frequently associated with trauma.

What does the collapse of sub-prime lending have in common with a broken jackscrew in an airliner’s tailplane? These were systems that drifted into failure. While pursuing success in a dynamic, complex environment with limited resources and multiple goal conflicts, a succession of small, everyday decisions eventually produced breakdowns on a massive scale. The growth of complexity in society has outpaced our understanding of how complex systems work and fail. This book explores complexity theory and systems thinking to understand better how complex systems drift into failure.

Understand trauma and discover its effects on the brain and body, develop a personalized recovery plan to overcome stress and anxiety, and find long-lasting healing. Recognized by Oprah Winfrey as a "spiritual thinker for the next generation," Mastin Kipp guides you through a plan for working through trauma. You'll come away with a clear understanding of trauma in your own life and others', and how to apply the best practices and information to fully heal and thrive.

Beatriz and Albert Sheldon have spent the last twenty years developing the novel therapeutic paradigm called Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems. They have pioneered a new methodology for "reading" and assessing emotional states using their patients' carefully observed psychophysiological phenomena as empirical evidence. Translating academic, scientific, and clinical research and successful training courses into a reference work that you can savor at leisure, the Sheldons have produced an approachable, intriguing, yet comprehensive milestone in psychotherapeutic literature.

Sparked by an Internal Family Systems (IFS) client’s lifelong affliction with an unattached burden— something in her mind that was not part of her—Bob Falconer began a decade-long study of the others within us and how they are treated worldwide. This study is important to all of us because what it reveals about the nature of mind holds a key to healing our underlying alienation and isolation.

No sport or theory-based training can keep you safe when self-defense is the only thing that matters. The core of this book is the International self-defense program, COBRA-Defense.

Have you ever felt like your life wasn't real? Have you ever felt like you were trapped in some kind of simulation, or a dream, or a movie, or a game? Have you ever felt like you weren't from this world? The Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, “It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.” This is your New Beginning. Why “New Beginning?” Because what lies ahead is a radical departure from the old. It's a catalyst to challenge, to question, and to overthrow outdated paradigms.

In this volume, Dr. Stephen W. Porges—the originator of Polyvagal Theory—presents a collection of recent writings that showcase the wide-ranging applications of the polyvagal perspective. The writings update the theory and delve into sociality, safety and threat, trauma, functional medicine, vagal nerve stimulation, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, addiction, compassion, management, and dance movement therapy. This newest volume of Dr. Porges's work demonstrates how adopting a polyvagal perspective enriches our understanding of biobehavioral processes in diverse domains.

In Traumatic Narcissism, Daniel Shaw presents a way of understanding the traumatic impact of narcissism as it is engendered developmentally and as it is enacted relationally. Focusing on the dynamics of narcissism in interpersonal relations, Shaw describes the relational system of what he terms the "traumatizing narcissist" as a system of subjugation - the objectification of one person in a relationship as the means of enforcing the dominance of the subjectivity of the other.

Internal Family Systems Therapy with Children details the application of IFS in child psychotherapy. The weaving together of theory, step-by-step instruction, and case material gives child therapists a clear roadmap for understanding and utilizing the healing power of this modality.

Healing Through the Vagus Nerve walks you through how the nervous system and the vagus nerve function, with approachable, non-academic language and helpful illustrations. Amanda Armstrong (founder of Rise as We) teaches all about vagal tone and the impact it has on your mental health and everyday life. Then, a variety of exercises and practices provide an adaptable approach to improving nervous system function.

An Internal Family Systems Guide to Recovery from Eating Disorders: Healing Part by Part addresses the necessity of healing the eating disorder sufferer's three groups of inner "Parts": the Mentors, the Advocates, and the Kids. In order to reconnect to their sense of Self and to achieve an inner balance necessary for recovery, the listener learns to address the unique needs of each of their "Parts." This book combines examples from the author's client cases and her own recovery with a step-by-step framework for identifying and healing the listeners' Parts using the IFS model.

Self Comes to Mind is a nuanced and original chronicle of the evolution of the human brain. It reveals how the brain's development of a self becomes a challenge to nature's indifference and opens the way for the appearance of culture, a radical break in the course of evolution.

Weaving together cutting-edge social science with riveting stories that take us from the front lines of the Volkswagen scandal to backstage at the Oscars, and from deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico to the top of Mount Everest, Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik explain how the increasing complexity of our systems creates conditions ripe for failure and why our brains and teams can't keep up. They highlight the paradox of progress: Though modern systems have given us new capabilities, they've become vulnerable to surprising meltdowns - and even to corruption and misconduct.

The Invisible Lion is a deeply personal and insightful exploration of how our human experience is shaped by our nervous system's response to trauma, and how we can tame our nervous system and heal our trauma to improve our happiness, health, and relationships.

At its heart, polyvagal theory describes how the brain's unconscious sense of safety or danger impacts our emotions and behaviors. In this powerful book, pediatrician and neonatologist Marilyn R. Sanders and child psychiatrist George S. Thompson offer both a meditation on caregiving and a call to action. By attending to the lessons of polyvagal theory—that adult caregivers must be aware of children's unconscious processing of sensory information—the authors show how professionals can play a critical role in establishing a sense of safety even in the face of dangerous situations.