Tim Brunson DCH

Welcome to The International Hypnosis Research Institute Web site. Our intention is to support and promote the further worldwide integration of comprehensive evidence-based research and clinical hypnotherapy with mainstream mental health, medicine, and coaching. We do so by disseminating, supporting, and conducting research, providing professional level education, advocating increased level of practitioner competency, and supporting the viability and success of clinical practitioners. Although currently over 80% of our membership is comprised of mental health practitioners, we fully recognize the role, support, involvement, and needs of those in the medical and coaching fields. This site is not intended as a source of medical or psychological advice. Tim Brunson, PhD

The Power of Mental Flexibility



by Tim Brunson, PhD

Ever since Stephen Covey mandated in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that people should learn to "think outside the box" and Bill O'Hanlon, LMFT, explained to Oprah Winfrey the central theme of his book Do One Thing Different, mental flexibility has been the popular buzz phrase for business consultants and therapists alike. Even during my coursework with the highly doctrine-oriented US Army War College, they too espoused the value of what is often called "critical thinking" among academics. Indeed, mental flexibility is both taught and explored. Yet, somehow I still feel that, despite the ubiquity of the concept, mental flexibility still needs further examination if its clinical applications are to be fully appreciated.

In the Neurology of Suggestion and Advanced Neuro-Noetic Hypnosis certification courses, I frequently mention that everything around us and within us is made up of patterns – which in turn have structure, encoding, and may be recalled. Neurologically this can be easily seen in the organization of neural networks. They are structured largely as a reflection of their environment – which can also be considered as learning. The late Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb, PhD, gave us the "Use it or Lose it" concept, which states that networks that are repetitively used are reinforced (as evidenced by additional connections between neurons in that network) and those that are neglected tend to wither or otherwise become subordinate.

As we perceive our environment and shape our neurological architecture, something else also happens. We habituate our thoughts and our neurophysiological processes. Therefore, we create automatic functioning that makes the creation of new ideas and further understanding unnecessary. For instance, the first time that you saw a coffee cup your brain went through the process of deciding what it was and the implications of all of its possible uses. Once this information is stored in the wiring of our temporal and parietal lobes, as long as our perceptions of the coffee cup can fit into the patterns previously established – that is to say, meaning and understanding has already been hard-wired – then there is no reason for cognitive processes to occur.

One of the other concepts that I regularly teach my students is the difference between cognitive and limbic orientations. The former tends to happen whenever a perception requires that a new understanding be established; the latter triggers an automatic, non-thinking response. Don't think for a moment that I am saying the limbic function is not important or something of which we should be ashamed. Even the most cognitive and intelligent thinkers among us spends most of their day ensconced in a predominantly limbic orientation. Indeed, just read Isaacson's recent biography of Albert Einstein and you will see that even that brilliant thinker had an extremely strong limbic orientation, which dominated much of his personal life.

For my present purposes I am simplifying these concepts to some degree as I correlate the non-thinking limbic orientations that drive our lives to pattern-driven neurological habituation. One friend and respected colleague eloquently refers to limbic domination by using the idiomatic phrase, "force of habit." Yes, this truly dominates the way we operate every second of every day. (Note that I did not say "the way we think," as thinking is a cognitive function. Most of our behavior and mental process is at the non-thinking, limbic level. For instance, ask someone if they think that there is a God. I would not be surprised that many of my friends in the Bible Belt of the southern United States would rapidly affirm that they think that the ultimate deity most certainly exists. However, they are wrong. They believe -- not think – there is a God. Their response is not a cognitive one. Rather it is a reflection of their value and belief systems, which were somehow indoctrinated into their value and belief systems earlier. Applying thought to the existence of God was most certainly done by historical greats such as Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and Meister Eckhart. However, for the vast majority of religious practitioners their faith is a limbic rather than cognitive phenomenon.)

So, at this point you may be asking yourself why and how this applies to a clinical practice. Therapy is about transformation. Essentially, when it comes down to it, what we are attempting to assist our clients with is a significant alteration of their limbic-orientated patterns. As it is the pattern that is a causing them mental or physical anguish, then our interventional skills may be necessary. Realizing that any such dysfunctionality is essentially due to a disharmonious entraining adaptation to their environment, successful interventions must seek to create a new adaptive process.

The problem here is that too often therapists address the subject as only a reactive, limbic entity and disregard the most powerful client characteristic, which is their cognitive abilities. Unfortunately, this is due to the unscientific and irrationally habituated obsession that clinicians have with the subconscious mind concept. Indeed, we are attempting to affect dysfunctional limbic patterns. However, we are doing just what Einstein warned us against. We are attempting to resolve a problem by using the same entity that caused it in the first place. Therefore, in order to evolve the client, we must get them to step out – at least for a moment – from their predominant limbic orientation. The only way that they can do this is by having them at least briefly step out of their limbic box and do at least one thing different. This requires cognitive, not limbic, processes. Joe Dispenza, DC, who studied the miraculous recovery of terminal patients, concluded that it was the power of the conscious mind – not the sub or unconscious one – to which their survival can be attributed. I am merely reiterating his discovery.

So, this is where flexible thinking comes in. Let's go back to the coffee cup for a moment. Suppose we have been fully indoctrinated in its role in the facilitation of drinking liquids. However, when it is used as a murder weapon, a door stop, or even a receptacle for cigarette ashes, our brains are forced to establish new understanding and to create new neurological patterns. This creates a high level of discomfort for many people. Remember the time that your car had a flat tire or you were forced to take a detour on the way to work? You probably felt a dull sense of frustration and agony while new understanding was developed and new patterns established. For some, cognitive functioning is rather painful. For others, it is presents a welcomed thrill.

Chances are that when a client comes into your office they are stuck within a strong limbic orientation. More than likely their efforts to resolve their situation include limbic strategies, which tend to reinforce – rather than alleviate – the problem. (This is what I call "feeding the weeds.") During a review of countless case histories, I have noticed that successful interventions almost always require the subject to engage in a cognitive process involving new meaning and understanding in regards to new perceptions. Doing one thing differently or having to address a new thought process challenges them and, if successful, results in an alteration of their limbic patterns. Essentially, this is what therapeutic interventions do. This is true whether it is done through lengthy psychoanalysis, brief therapy, hypnotherapy, and especially Cognitive Based Therapy.

One of the things that I have never read or heard mentioned is the goal of increasing the subject's cognitive competence. Once someone starts developing the ability to step outside of their habituated limbic-orientation box and start using the neural substrates associated with cognitive processes, they are literally building new capabilities. Think of this as developing new cognitive muscles. The more that they participate in the establishment of new understanding, they should also expect that the enhancement of these parts of the brain can and will lead to more and more abilities – and therefore facilitate further change. This brings to mind the transition of any society from a period of a Dark Age into the enlightenment of a Renaissance period. Once the process of cognitive development begins, it seems that creativity has truly been unleashed.

Of course, the therapist cannot expect their clients to be any more capable of cognitive thought than they are. I often say: "be the change that you want to see in you subject." If as a clinician you are mired in restrictive schools of thought and habituated methods, you will most likely rarely see the desired change occurring within your client. So, if you define your professionalism as cultural acceptance and indoctrination to the en vogue thinking (sic. belief systems) of your peers, you are likewise guilty of inside the box, limbic thinking and a great candidate for your own future enlightenment.

Mental flexibility is not just some feel good, self-help cliché. It is a valid, scientifically-based therapeutic concept with strong implications as to how true transformation occurs. It requires the development of cognitive flexibility and competence in both the clinician and the subject. The wide range of therapeutic schools and methodologies available today all started off as cognitive processes – before becoming limbically and myopically habituated. We must find a way to transcend this morass of clinical thinking if we are to inspire change within our clients. It is therefore necessary to realize that it is the cognitive power of the conscious mind that is the true doorway into lasting change.

The International Hypnosis Research Institute is a member supported project involving integrative health care specialists from around the world. We provide information and educational resources to clinicians. Dr. Brunson is the author of over 150 self-help and clinical CD's and MP3's.

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