Bibliotherapy: The Whole-Brain Child

I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Dan Siegel speak in California years back, he is one of the leaders in the field of psychiatry. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel, MD and Tina Payne Bryson, PhD has been on my bookshelf unread for years. The whole time, I was reading it, I kept thinking, I should have read this earlier! Everyone that interacts with kids must read this book!

As parents, teachers, and nurturers of children, the authors state, “Rather than trying to shelter our children from life’s inevitable difficulties, we can help them integrate those experiences into their understanding of the world and learn from them.”

Siegel and Payne Bryson explain the importance of a well-integrated brain, left-right, upstairs-downstairs, memory for growth and healing, parts of self, and self-other. They share 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind. Here are some tidbits from this book:

·      “Neurons that fire together wire together” = neuroplasticity (our brains change throughout our lives)

·      Everything that happens to us impacts our developing brains

·      Being well integrated = mental health and well-being

·      Chaos/rigidity = dysregulation

·      Left brain = “logical, linguistic, literal” AND Right brain = “emotional, nonverbal, experiential, autobiographical”

·      Storytelling = promotes order and integration

·      Amygdala’s job = to process and express fear and anger, ensure survival

·      “Flipping our lid” = when downstairs brain is hijacked by amygdala

·      Movement has the power to change emotional states

·      Memory = an association machine

·      Typically, emotions come and go in 90 seconds

·      “To become part of a well-functioning we, a person needs to also remain an individual me”

I highly recommend this book! It has tons of useful information and strategies to nurture healthy kids, and for adults to better understand and work with their own brains. Coriander Living Collective is here to support you as you cultivate integrated children and an integrated self!