The Couples Therapist Couch 256: Brain Science & Attachment with Dr. Dan Siegel
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Aug 19, 2025 
In this enlightening discussion, Dr. Dan Siegel, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and author on mindfulness and neurobiology, explores the crucial role of brain science in relationships. He delves into how attachment styles shaped in childhood influence adult dynamics. Siegel highlights the power of empathy and emotional communication in therapy, alongside practical tools like the Adult Attachment Interview. The conversation also touches on how integrating past experiences fosters hope and healing in therapy, transforming relational challenges into opportunities for growth.
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Mind As An Emergent Process
- The mind is an emergent, self-organizing process that spans body and relationships.
- Integration (linking differentiated parts) produces health and the FACES flow: flexible, adaptive, coherent, energized, stable.
Name Feelings, Not Neurochemistry
- When doing emotion work, name subjective experience rather than reducing it to brain chemistry.
- Use empathic, first-person attunement to create meaning and connection with clients.
Emotion As Integration
- Emotional communication is information processing that differentiates and links subjective states between people.
- This integration creates a shared 'we' and improves regulation, even affecting immune response.
