The Hijacked Brain: Epigenetics and Neuroscience-Based Interventions to Help Your Clients Recover From Addictions
A clinician who does not treat substance use still has a caseload full of this. The compulsive scrolling, the shopping that manages a mood, the gaming, the eating, the evening drinking that has quietly stopped being optional. John Arden’s argument is that these are not separate problems requiring separate expertise. They run through the same machinery, and once you see the mechanism you can work with any of them.
The mechanism is a narrowing. Addiction hijacks the networks that let a person feel motivated, pay attention and get something out of ordinary life, and it progressively reduces the range of things capable of producing pleasure until one behaviour is doing all the work. By that point it is usually not producing pleasure either, just relief from its absence. A client whose range has collapsed that far is set up to relapse, because there is nothing else in the field to move toward.
Six hours across five sessions, deliberately covering the whole spectrum rather than one substance. He works through how the hijacking happens, how conditioned cues operate in acquisition and in relapse, what tolerance actually is, and what adverse childhood experiences do to the stress system that makes addiction more likely later. The treatment half is about widening the range again: rebuilding the capacity for what he calls natural highs, and doing it through a biopsychosocial approach rather than a single intervention. He draws on the Icelandic model, which took this logic to a whole population. Sleep gets substantial attention, because recovery without it does not hold.
You’ll walk away with
- Addiction as one mechanism rather than a list of substances, and why that widens who you can help
- How the reward and motivation networks get hijacked, and what that does to the range of things a person can enjoy
- Dopamine downregulation, and why the behaviour stops producing pleasure long before it stops
- Conditioned cues in both acquisition and relapse, and what to do about the ones a client cannot avoid
- Tolerance, and how to explain it to a client in terms they recognise from their own experience
- Adverse childhood experiences, cortisol receptors and the stress system that will not switch off
- Behavioural addictions handled with the same framework: gaming, phones, shopping, eating
- Rebuilding the capacity for pleasure outside the addiction, which he treats as the core of treatment
- Why a narrow range of positive experience is itself the relapse risk
- The Icelandic model, and what a population-level version of this approach looked like
- Sleep in recovery: what alcohol does to a sleep cycle, and why that matters clinically
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Where this sits: the addiction application of John Arden’s integrative work. Therapeutic Applications of Neuroscience, Psychoneuroimmunology and Epigenetics covers the foundations, and Practical Neuroscience of Sleep goes further into the sleep material touched on here.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever 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.
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This course includes:
- Lessons 6
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English