On November 13th, 2015 SCV-CAMFT gathered for a wonderful lunch and an extremely thoughtful presentation by Francine Lapides, LMFT.  Ms. Lapides began her talk by reminding us that infants are primarily right-brained and this right-brain development continues for the first two to three years of life.  Attachment templates are stored in the right brain.  The take away is, in order to heal trauma we need to address both the unconscious and conscious areas of the brain.  As therapists we see first hand how these early traumas can shape a person.  Some of these traumas leave us with resiliency while others leave us more rigid.  Francine then took us through some basic neuroscience.  This part of the presentation served as our “infancy” in neuroscience (if we did not already have that knowledge).  Even if you did have prior neuroscience knowledge her information was a great review. 

She shared a quote from Winnicott, ”There is no such thing as a baby ... if you set out to describe a baby, you will find you are describing a baby and someone.’’  (Winnicott, 1947).  The relationship heals because we are relational beings.  We start life in relationship or if not, trauma is likely present.  We can help our clients make meaning of early trauma.  This healing is rooted in the physiology of neuroscience and is more helpful if done bottom up (or body to head direction).  The limbic system and attachment theory dominate as stated on Ms. Lapides’ slide: “Early life experiences create potent affective ‘knowing’ in implicit, non-verbal, unconscious, memory which underlie and have a profound influence on personality, dominate mood, symptoms, and relationships throughout life.”  

As we transitioned to the second section of the talk, Ms. Lapides invited someone to come up to the front of the room and summarize what they had just learned about neuroscience.  No one volunteered. There were crickets. We all behaved as though we were glued to our seats. She let the perfect amount of silence play out before she joked that she was just getting our heart rates up so we could feel our prefrontal cortex at work.  As many of you likely know, the prefrontal cortex is the part of our brains that helps us regulate emotion.  Francine’s “experiment” was perfectly set up as a process experiential learning exercise.  We have the basics of neuroscience, we are asked to come talk about it in front of the group and then upon finding out we actually don’t have to, we can then re-regulate.  

Just like in therapy (week after week), we invite our clients to talk, or draw, or move through their trauma.  They might turn us down but as the relationship and trust grows we can begin to help them heal.  This ability to manage activation helps us access our unconscious beliefs.  There are, as Francine shared, “implicit relational schemas” or unconscious beliefs that all of us have.  For example, we may unconsciously believe that, “If I try to perform and fail, people will think less of me.” These are, of course, the thoughts and feelings we want to target in therapy.  We have seen many of these beliefs in our clients and at times ourselves: “Other peoples’ needs are more important than my own,” “It’s too dangerous to be vulnerable and let others close,” and/or “Something is terribly wrong with me.” (powerpoint slides).  These relational schemas defined by B. Ecker, R. Ticic, & L. Hulley, (2012) dig deep into the root of our work.  

In the article titled “A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation and its Psychotherapeutic use as a Core Process of Profound Change” (2012) the authors state:  “The emphasis in the Emotional Coherence Framework is on the coherence of the emotional brain—subcortical and right-brain coherence, the coherence that is intrinsic to implicit emotional learnings and, when retrieved into conscious awareness, creates new autobiographical coherence most meaningfully and authentically.”  This quote sums up this section of the talk.  Many of the symptoms we see in therapy are generated by these “implicit (unconscious) relational knowings” (powerpoint slide).

When she spoke of the “bottom up” way of working with our clients she mentioned poetry because it has more of a right-brain connection.  Using poetry or other right-brain activities with our clients can help them access and heal their trauma.  If at this point you find yourself wishing you had trained more somatically you are not alone.  If you are aware of the work of Pat Ogden and Ron Kurtz, you may be on your way to what Ms. Lapides is urging us to use, more of our right brain.

The interventions Ms. Lapides offered at the end of her talk were extremely helpful. Instead of asking left-brained questions we can shift statements to a more right-brain experience.  For example, instead of stating “Your father’s anger was uncontrolled and made you feel unsafe”, the right brain is more able to hear, “When you father exploded in rage, you felt terrified and small.”  Instead of offering “It will be important for you to know I’m here”, clinicians can try a more right-brained approach such as asking, “Can you look at me, can you feel me here with you”?  

If you were at the luncheon you heard Francine’s calm, caring, seasoned voice. It was healing in a room of nearly 100 colleagues.  I hope you get a sense of her way of being from this short description.

If you are just learning of Ms. Lapides as I did in November, I recommend you seek out training with her.  She’s offering a study group in 2016 focused on the field of  psychoneurology.  This training is designed to help therapists apply the new research from brain science to every day clinical problems in the treatment of emotional, mood, and behavioral challenges we all face, and to untangle the difficulties that can plague us in our most intimate relationships.

Francine’s upcoming intensive study group will address the question of how this can be done while integrating neuroscience.  She will address the clinical skills of “trusting your intuition, somatic transference, intimacy and self disclosure, rupture and repair,” and much more.  I wish I lived closer to Santa Cruz!  This group will surely be helpful.  She stated, “While the overwhelming bias in western psychotherapy has been a top down primarily left-brain model of conscious and verbal attempts at change, neuroscience is increasingly confirming that we must work in this right brain, unconscious, body-based arena as well.”  

One could call Francine our local Dan Siegel.  She has studied with him for years and additionally, has been a part of Allan Schore’s Berkeley study group.  Francine Lapides has been a licensed MFT since 1974.  She is a decades-long member of SCV-CAMFT and is in private practice in San Jose and Santa Cruz, California.

For more information about Francine and her trainings you can reach her through her website at www.francinelapides.com

Bridget Bertrand, LMFT #83020 is a therapist in private practice working with individuals and children in San Mateo.  She will open a long-term process group in 2016 with her suite-mate Ari-Asha Castalia, LMFT #82973.  She can be reached at bridget@bridgetbertrand.com