Menu
A message from Dr. Susan LaCombe
Ever since I discovered how a "12 second practice" could give my emotional life a dramatic ‘makeover’, I've been passionate about teaching the incredible discoveries of neuroscience and translating them into practical, everyday techniques.
You know we normally think of the nervous system as a passive carrier of signals running between the brain and the body. But neuroscience reveals how profoundly our emotional lives are rooted within its cells.
Here's what happens when the nervous system is NOT working:
You see as you go about your day – both the excitement and stress you encounter trigger the cells in your body to release energy. If that energy remains bottled up, you’ll be hyper, checked out or less present.
A nervous system that’s high functioning on the other hand, can regulate more in a day without maxing you out. You’re clear headed and less reactive to the stress and emotional challenges you face.
Good news from the lab...
Psychologists used to believe that the nervous system was set in stone early on, and unchangeable. We now know we can change the basic functioning of the nervous system, and can do so without medications.
The beauty of working with the brain organically - as we do with a bodymindful approach - is that the impact is felt across your total functioning…emotionally, mentally, physically, even spiritually.
You’re just better at being human all round!
That’s how it is when a little "12 second body practice" leads to a mindfulness mindset…nurture it, and it just keeps on getting better.
God Bless,
Ed.D. of Counseling Psychology
You feel refreshed and open to the the world – no longer pulled into a crisis/freeze mode cycle – you’re in the flow.
As fearfulness diminished, it’s easier to express yourself to friends, family and your partner (even your therapist). Why? Because now you manage your emotions – they no longer manage you.
When you take time to be with your body you connect to that feeling of "me". And when you’re comfortable in your own skin – you’re at ease with your body.
Relationships change when you are manifestly present. You come to realize that your attuned presence fosters an attitude of true empathy and compassion, and others can feel it.
As your physical self-awareness grows, you adopt healthy habits of diet, exercise and rest to nurture and sustain your body.
You experience a new freedom as bad habits gradually lessen their grip. Healthy sustaining habits are easily – and cheerfully – adopted in their place.
As the persistent mental chatter gradually fades away you can ground yourself in the stillness of the present moment. Indeed, you can finally and fully surrender to the experience of life, laughter and joy.
Susan LaCombe Ed.D. - publisher of myShrink.com and creator of De-Coding the Brain - is a passionate advocate for getting it as “right” as we can the first time. After a thousand clinical hours as a psychotherapist/psychologist and responding to hundreds of questions from people in therapy and seeing needless suffering, she wonders if we’re going about it all wrong.
Rather, if we harness our energies to helping the unborn and later infant child, we’ll have far less issues with emotional dysregulation and with that, far lower rates of mental illness, anxiety, depression and related issues of abandonment, transference, authority issues and the like. She asks if we did that, could we change the trajectory of our trauma pattern as nations.
At last count there’s over 300 mental health disorders. Dr. LaCombe maintains there is a simpler way through the non-pathologizing model of emotional regulation.
The emotional regulation model is based on the fact that we’re all connected and we do so through our right brain. It’s this right brain to right brain dynamic that the nervous system largely develops.