Neurobiology and Mental Health Clinical Practice

This book illustrates the current findings of interpersonal neurobiology that inform knowledge building and clinical practice. Contributions cover an impressive range of material including how neurobiology interfaces with clinical work with children, individuals with substance abuse issues, couples and clients with trauma histories.

Leading mental health clinician-scholars describe path-breaking explorations at the neurobiological frontiers of 21st century clinical theory and practice. Representing the fields of social work, psychology and psychiatry, these authors creatively apply research findings from the ongoing revolution in social and behaviour neuroscience to a diverse array of clinical issues. Contributions include elaborations of theory (the evolving social brain; new directions in attachment, affect regulation and trauma studies); practice (neurobiologically informed work with children, adults, couples and in the conduct of supervision); and emerging neuroscientific perspectives on broader mental health issues and concerns (substance abuse; psychotropic medications; secondary traumatic stress in clinicians; the neurodynamics of racial prejudice; the dangers of forfeiting humanism to our current romance with the biological). Together, these chapters equip readers with state-of-the-art knowledge of the manner in which new understandings of the brain inform and shape today’s professional efforts to heal the troubled mind.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Smith College Studies in Social Work.