Slides from Dan Phillips' presentation at L.I.F.E. Recovery International's 2015 Embracing the Journey Training Seminar. Seminar audio is available on www.freedomeveryday.org.

1. BRAIN HACKERS
From conformation to transformation

2. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and approve
what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect
will.
- Romans 12:2

3. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world…

4. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world…
Conform: su-schē-ma-tí-zō

5. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world…
Conform: su-schē-ma-tí-zō
Refers to the act of an individual assuming an
outward expression that does not come from
within him, nor is it representative of his
inner heart life.

6. “the impact of external forces that [render]
the young person temporarily helpless
and [break] past ordinary coping and
defensive operation. . . . [This includes]
not only those conditions marked by
intense surprise but also those marked by
prolonged and sickening anticipation.”
Terr, L.C. (1991). “Childhood Traumas: An Outline and Overview.”
American Journal of Psychiatry, 148(1): p.11.

7. TRAUMATIC EVENTS

8. TRAUMATIC EVENTS
ABUSIVE/invasive

9. 80% of young adults who have survived abuse
suffer from at least one mental health
problem, including clinical depression, anxiety
or eating disorders, or post traumatic stress
disorder. Childhelp, “national child abuse statistics,” 2006,
www.Childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics

10. TRAUMATIC EVENTS
ABUSIVE/invasive
ABANDONMENT

12. Our brains are sculpted by our early
experiences. Maltreatment is a chisel that
shapes the brain to contend with
anticipated strife, but at the cost of deep,
enduring wounds.”
Dr. Martin Teicher; 2005; Keynote Address; Family Policy Council Partners’
Summit

13. “A single traumatic experience can alter an
adult's brain: A horrifying battle, for instance,
may induce the flashbacks, depression and
hair-trigger response of post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). And researchers are finding
that abuse and neglect EARLY IN LIFE can
have even MORE DEVISTATING
consequences, tangling both the chemistry
and the architecture of children's brains and
leaving them at risk for drug abuse, teen
pregnancy and psychiatric problems later in
life.”
"The biology of soul murder: Fear can harm a child's brain. Is it reversible?”
U.S. News & World Report; Nov. 11, 1996 (emphasis added).

14. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

15. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

16. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

17. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

18. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

19. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma,
and adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood
trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 7, 33-51.

20. “The brain's exquisite sensitivity to
experience in early childhood allows
traumatic experiences during infancy and
childhood to impact all future emotional,
behavioral, cognitive, social and
physiological functioning.”
Perry, B.D., & Pollard, R. (1998). Homeostasis, stress, trauma, and
adaptation: A neurodevelopmental view of childhood trauma. Child and
Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 7, 33-51.

21. BRAIN STRUCTURE:
The brain will cut off neurons that are
learning to trust and bond because trying to
trust and bond results in pain, fear, and stress.

22. BRAIN STRUCTURE:
The brain can actually cut off neurons that are
learning to trust and bond because trying to
trust and bond results in pain, fear, and stress.
NEUROCHEMISTRY:
The brain “medicates itself” by pushing you to
engage in behaviors that alter your
neurochemistry (emotions), driving unwanted
thoughts, unwanted feelings, and unwanted
memories temporarily out of your conscious
awareness.

23. The ADDICTIVE CONDITION sets in

24. The ADDICTIVE CONDITION sets in
a neurochemically
reinforced intimacy
disorder…

25. “Brain dysfunction is the number one
reason why people fall victim to addiction,
why they can't break the chains of addiction,
and why they relapse”
Daniel G. Amen and David E. Smith; Unchain Your Brain, 2010, pp.17-18

26. “If it is an addiction, there’s no choice.
The limbic system is driving it.…The brain
focuses on the things the neurochemical
system needs.
Dr. Doris Vincent; certified sex-addiction therapist and registered psychologist

27. “You can have the greatest treatment plan
available or enter the most well respected
treatment center, but if you have underlying
brain dysfunction, chances are you won't be
able to follow through with the program.
For lasting success, the brain problems
must be treated in addition to the
addiction.”
Daniel G. Amen and David E. Smith; Unchain Your Brain, 2010, p. 56

28. “We are making unprecedented advances in
understanding the biology of addiction, and
that is finally starting to push the thinking
from moral failing to legitimate illness.”
Jeneen Interlandi, “What addicts need,” Newsweek, 3 March 2008

29. There’s GOOD NEWS…

30. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
- Romans 12:2

31. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
- Romans 12:2
Renewing: an·ak·ah·ee·no·sis

32. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
- Romans 12:2
Renewing: an·ak·ah·ee·no·sis
A renewing or a renovation which makes a
person different than in the past.
A complete change for the better.

33. January 29, 2007
Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html

34. “For decades, the prevailing theory in
neuroscience was that the adult human brain is
essentially hardwired, fixed in form and
function, so that by the time we reach
adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what
we have.”

36. “But RESEARCH IN THE PAST FEW YEARS
has overthrown that dogma. In its place has come
the realization that the adult brain retains
impressive powers of "neuroplasticity"--the
ability to change its structure and function in
response to experience. These aren't minor
tweaks either…
the brain can be REWIRED.”
TIME magazine Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html

37. “What I mean by ‘neuroplasticity’ is the
fact that the brain is the one organ
that is built to change in response to
experience. More than your heart,
your kidney, your liver, the brain is built
to change in response to experience
and in response to training.”
Richard Davidson, “Shaping your child's brain,” talk given at Appleton East high
school (Appleton, Wisconsin)
13 May 2008

38. BRAIN HACKING
From conformation to transformation

39. the brain is built to changein
response to experienceand in
response to training

40. A discipline is an activity in our power that
we engage in, in order to become able to
do what we cannot do at the moment by
direct effort.

41. The RESULT of engaging in disciplines:
The conditioning of the body’s automatic
responses…

42. The RESULT of engaging in disciplines:
The conditioning of the body’s automatic
responses…

43. Recovery disciplines are activities in our
power that we engage in, in order to
achieve a level of moral integrity that we
cannot achieve at the moment through our
direct efforts.

44. Recovery disciplines are activities in our
power that we engage in, in order to
achieve a level of moral integrity that we
cannot achieve at the moment through our
direct efforts.
L.I.F.E. group meetings
Counseling
Phone calls
Journaling
Self care
Prayer
Meditation

45. The RESULT of engaging in RECOVERY
disciplines:
the re-conditioning of our mind’s
automatic responses to triggering events
(stress/shame)
The conditioning of the body’s automatic
responses…

46. The RESULT of engaging in RECOVERY
disciplines:
the re-conditioning of our mind’s
automatic responses to triggering events
(stress/shame)
The conditioning of the body’s automatic
responses…

47. “The very structure of our brain--the
relative size of different regions, the
strength of connections between them,
even their functions--reflects the lives
we have led. Like sand on a beach, the
brain bears the footprints of the
decisions we have made, the skills
we have learned, the actions we have
taken.”
TIME magazine Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html

48. “The powerful shaping experiences
of childhood can be modified
through subsequent personal
relationships, psychotherapy, and
self-awareness.”
Siegel, D.J & Hartzel, M (2003) parenting from the inside and out:
how a deeper self understanding can help you raise children who
thrive. New York: Tarcher/Putnam

49. “So much of my childhood between
the ages of four and nine is
blank....It's almost as if my life was
smashed into little pieces . . .
The trouble is, when I try to
remember, I come up with so little.
This ability to forget was probably my
way of surviving emotionally as a
child…”

50. “I'm still afraid of being hungry. . .
I never leave my house without some
food....
Again, I don't remember being
hungry. I asked my sister and she
said
that we were hungry. So I must have
been! I just don't remember.”

51. “I'm still afraid of being hungry. . .
I never leave my house without some
food....
Again, I don't remember being
hungry. I asked my sister and she
said
that we were hungry. So I must have
been! I just don't remember.”Ava Landy, Holocaust survivor.
Marks, J. (1995). The hidden children: The secret survivors of the
Holocaust. Toronto : Bantam Books, p.188.

52. You were taught, with regard to your former way
of life, to put off your old self, which is being
corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on
the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness.
- Ephesians 4:22-24

53. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness,
please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful,
but a disciplined life in God is far more so,
making you fit both today and forever.
- 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (The Message)

54. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing
and perfect will.
- Romans 12:2

57. The PLEASURE CENTER
Within a portion of the limbic system we find the
brain’s pleasure center and reward circuit - a
number of brain structures that control and
regulate our ability to feel pleasure.
This part of the limbic system is activated by
anything that gives us pleasure
We only have one pleasure center and ALL
PLEASURES have to pass through this center.
The brain’s process for getting pleasure is the
same for healthy fun activities as it is for cocaine
or other destructive activities

58. The PLEASURE CENTER
Within a portion of the limbic system we find the
brain’s pleasure center and reward circuit - a
number of brain structures that control and
regulate our ability to feel pleasure.
This part of the limbic system is activated by
anything that gives us pleasure
We only have one pleasure center and ALL
PLEASURES have to pass through this center.
The brain’s process for getting pleasure is the
same for healthy fun activities as it is for cocaine
or other destructive activities

59. The PLEASURE CENTER
Within a portion of the limbic system we find the
brain’s pleasure center and reward circuit - a
number of brain structures that control and
regulate our ability to feel pleasure.
This part of the limbic system is activated by
anything that gives us pleasure
We only have one pleasure center and ALL
PLEASURES have to pass through this center.
The brain’s process for getting pleasure is the
same for healthy fun activities as it is for cocaine
or other destructive activities

60. The PLEASURE CENTER
Within a portion of the limbic system we find the
brain’s pleasure center and reward circuit - a
number of brain structures that control and
regulate our ability to feel pleasure.
This part of the limbic system is activated by
anything that gives us pleasure
We only have one pleasure center and ALL
PLEASURES have to pass through this center.
The brain’s process for getting pleasure is the
same for healthy fun activities as it is for
cocaine or other destructive activities

61. The PLEASURE CENTER
When you do something that makes you feel
better the pleasure center is activated

62. The PLEASURE CENTER
When you do something that makes you feel
better the pleasure center is activated
When this takes place within the context of a
traumatic environment, the limbic system
associates the pleasurable activity with
SURVIVAL

63. The PLEASURE CENTER
When you do something that makes you feel
better the pleasure center is activated
When this takes place within the context of a
traumatic environment, the limbic system
associates the pleasurable activity with
SURVIVAL
Reward chemicals (neurotransmitters) are
released in your brain, producing even more
good feelings for the behavior because the
behavior has increase your chances for “survival.”