The Hijacked Brain: Epigenetics and Neuroscience-Based Interventions to Help Your Clients Recover From Addictions
If you think you do not work with addictions, think again. We no longer think of addictions in traditional, one-dimensional terms, and the meaning of addictions has expanded from substance misuse into much broader behaviours, such as Netflix binge watching, digital addiction, computer game dependency, compulsive eating or excessive shopping to sooth the mood. We all seek out pleasure and avoid discomfort. However, for some people these basic tendencies can warp into an addiction.
The rapid advances in digital technology have radically transformed how we learn, work, and relate to each other. The impact of the dependency on various addictions–reduced capacities of attention, concentration, empathy, and self-reflection–has become a pressing mental health concern that practitioners are noticing and beginning to address in psychotherapy sessions.
Join Dr John Arden, an internationally known author and epigenetics and neuroscience teacher, and see how recent developments in neuroscience and psychology can expand addiction treatment. It begins by explaining how addiction hijacks the pleasure and motivational systems in the brain. When addictions do develop, what was once experienced as pleasure degrades into displeasure and motivation to engage in the world degrades into dysphoria and apathy. Meanwhile addictions cause and are caused by anxiety and depression.
By understanding the neuroscience aspects underlying addictions, therapists can more effectively help clients revitalize their bodies and brains to overcome addictions and dependencies on behaviours such as constant phone checking, looking at the emails all the time, other digital dependencies or substance misuse.
In the past, seminars on psychotherapy generally stayed clear of addressing addictions, while addiction seminars deferred to mental health providers for insights into people with mental health disorders. Integrated psychotherapy goes well beyond the one-dimensional conceptual frames of “dual diagnosis” and “co-occurring disorders.”
This online course reveals the common denominators of approaches such as bio-psycho-social intervention, Motivational Interviewing, Relapse Prevention, and behavioural re-activation. It will also describe the international movement that originated in Iceland and has now been adopted by 21 countries. This new approach has expanded the bio-psycho-social interventions of the past and is increasingly looked upon as a model to adopt cross-culturally.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand: How internet addiction hijacks the same motivational and pleasure networks hijacked by other forms of addictions.
- Explain: how most addictions downregulate dopamine receptors, making the range of potential positive experiences narrow to the addictive behaviour.
- Discuss: How a person had experienced multiple ACEs may epigenetically decrease the number of cortisol receptors, making it difficult to turn off the HPA axis and be more inclined to be addicted to drugs and alcohol.
- Clarify: How people who maintain a reduced range of potentially positive experiences represents a set-up to develop addictive behaviours.
- Understand: How expanding the range of positive behaviours, thereby expanding the number of medium spiny neurons in the pleasure centre of the brain should be part of treatment.
- Rate: How rebuilding resiliency and the capacity to generate pleasure outside the addiction necessitates an integrative biopsychosocial approach.
- Explain: How the international movement (born originally in Iceland) expands the bio-psycho-social approach to transform addictions into behaviours oriented to positive pleasures.
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of why therapeutic interventions create lasting change - and those curious about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying successful therapy - can enhance their clinical effectiveness by integrating neuroscience with established therapeutic approaches. John Arden has spent over 40 years pioneering the integration of neuroscience and psychotherapy, becoming one of the world's leading authorities on an integrative approach and helping thousands of practitioners understand how to leverage neuroplasticity and neurogenesis for more effective treatment outcomes.
As former Northern California Regional Director of Training at Kaiser Permanente for 25 years, where he developed one of the largest mental health training programs in the United States overseeing 150+ interns and postdoctoral residents, Dr. Arden brings unparalleled expertise in training mental health professionals. His 16 books translated into 20 languages - including Mind-Brain-Gene: Toward Psychotherapy Integration, Rewire Your Brain 2.0, and Brain-Based Therapy with Adults - represent the definitive resources for understanding how neuroscience transforms clinical practice. His Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award and recognition as one of the most entertaining and integrative speakers in professional psychology reflect his unique ability to make complex concepts immediately applicable.
Dr. Arden's expertise spans integration, neuroplasticity and neurogenesis applications, metabolic, psychoneuroimmunology, epigenetics, mindfulness-based interventions, and nutritional neuroscience. His approach synthesises evidence-based practice with cutting-edge neuroscience research, showing clinicians how psychotherapy literally rewires the brain. He specialises in anxiety disorders, OCD, PTSD, depression, and memory improvement, with particular focus on how therapeutic relationships activate neuroplastic change and how lifestyle factors influence brain health and therapeutic outcomes.
What sets his training apart is scientific rigor combined with practical application. Arden doesn't just teach neuroscience theory - he shows practitioners exactly how body-brain systems influence therapeutic success and failure. His seminars in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries demonstrate his exceptional ability to translate complex neuroscience into immediately usable clinical strategies that enhance existing therapeutic modalities.
For your practice, expect to gain specific integrative interventions that enhance treatment outcomes, tools for educating clients about their neurological processes, and frameworks for integrating neuroscience principles with your current therapeutic approach. His methods particularly benefit clinicians wanting to understand why their interventions work, those seeking to enhance treatment efficacy, or practitioners interested in cutting-edge therapeutic applications.
Quick Win: Arden's "SEEDS" formula (Social connection, Exercise, Education, Diet, Sleep) provides clients with five evidence-based lifestyle interventions that promote neuroplasticity - often creating measurable improvements in mood and cognitive function while supporting therapeutic progress.
Qualifications
- Ph.D., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 1980–1984
- Post-License Training, Neuropsychology, California School of Professional Psychology, 1987–1988
- M.A., Counseling Psychology, Northern Arizona University, 1975–1976
- B.S., Social Sciences, Northern Arizona University, 1969–1973
- Over 40 years experience in psychology
Authored Books (16 total, translated into 20 languages)
- Mind-Brain-Gene: Toward Psychotherapy Integration (2019)
- Rewire Your Brain 2.0 (updated edition)
- Brain2Brain (2015, practical neuroscience for psychotherapy)
- The Brain Bible (comprehensive guide to brain-based approaches)
- Brain-Based Therapy: Adults (co-author with Lloyd Linford)
- Brain-Based Therapy: Children & Adolescents (co-author with Lloyd Linford)
- Conquering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (co-author with Victoria Beckner)
- The Brain-Based Anxiety Workbook, The Brain-Based OCD Workbook
- Improving Your Memory for Dummies
Professional Experience
- Author 1996–present
- International Trainer & Speaker, Integrative Approaches, 2009–present
- Northern California Regional Director of Training, Kaiser Permanente, 1999–2016 (26+ years)
- Chief Psychologist, Kaiser Permanente (prior to 1999)
- Supervisor, Mental Health Practitioners, Kaiser Permanente
- Seminars conducted in all 50 U.S. states and 30 countries worldwide
Clinical Specialties
- Integration of neuroscience and evidence-based psychotherapy
- Neuroplasticity and neurogenesis applications in treatment
- Psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetic factors in therapy
- Brain-based approaches to anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and depression
- Memory improvement and cognitive enhancement
- Mindfulness and nutritional neuroscience
- Lifestyle interventions for brain health
Ready to revolutionise your therapeutic effectiveness through neuroscience? Discover how Dr. Arden's integrative approach can help you understand exactly why your interventions work and how to leverage neuroplasticity for faster, more lasting client change.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 6
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English