W2 lsci brain mary ellen_fecser

1. LSCI and the Brain
Frank & Mary Ellen Fecser
2013 EFeCT Conference
Cascais, Portugal

2. Historically…….
• Observers of human behavior (authors,
philosophers, psychoanalysts) have
understood and written about the causes and
effects of life experiences.
• Now science is able to confirm.

4. Brain stem (heart rate,
breathing, eating,
sleeping)
Cerebellum (balance,
repetitive movement)
Limbic system
Amygdala (survival
emotions: fear, anger,
sex, eating)
Hippocampus (memory)
Diencephalon
Thalamus (sensory
perception, movement)
Hypothalamus
Cerebral cortex (thinking,
perceiving, language)

5. • Abstract thought
• Concrete thought Cortex
• Affiliation
• “Attachment”
• Sexual behavior
• Emotional Reactivity Limbic
• Motor regulation
• “Arousal”
• Appetite/Satiety Diencephalon
• Sleep
• Blood pressure
• Heart rate Brainstem
• Body temperature
Complexity Plasticity
Bruce Perry

8. (Beliefs)
(Self-talk)

9. Possible causes of early trauma
• Abuse or neglect
• Immature or ill-prepared
care givers
• Drug addicted mothers
• Loss of parent/primary
caretaker
• Extended early vs
hospitalizations, surgeries,
illnesses
• Living with or witnessing
violence
• Frequent moves or
placements

10. The brain’s first job is to keep the body alive.
RATIONAL BRAIN EMOTIONAL BRAIN
(NEW BRAIN) (OLD BRAIN)
• IMPULSE CONTROL • FIGHT OR FLIGHT ACTION
• SENSE OF REASON AND • BIOLOGICAL RESPONSE
JUDGEMENT
M.E. Fecser

11. Manifestation of Trauma
• Hyperarousal (fight or flight)
– If you cannot flee, you fight.
• Dissociation (freeze)
M.E. Fecser 2012

12. Observable signs of potential trauma
Hyper-vigilance / Alertness
• Wary and guarded facial affect
• Issues around “fairness”(perceived unfair criticism)
• Distrustful and suspicious, questions adult motives.
• Argumentative
• Uncomfortable in crowds or large groups
– May refuse to join a large group situation (E.g.
class is on the floor in a group—child sits in chair
behind group)
– May refuse to walk in line.
– In large group situation, hits, pushes, touches, or
grabs others (hit first)
M.E. Fecser 2012

13. Abandonment Issues
• Clingy or dependent
• May be unusually friendly with strangers (esp.
younger students)
• Accuses adult of insufficient care or support
• Tendency to try and control adults in life, or
cause them to reject him/her
M.E. Fecser 2012

14. Self-Protection and Control
• May feel helpless due to past victimization
– Learned helplessness and control of adults
through dependence.
• Refuses or only partially follows directions
• Justifies harmful behaviors
• Passive-aggressive behavior
• Need to save face/appear strong or smart
• Will refuse to do work he perceives as too
difficult
M.E. Fecser 2012

15. • Controlling and manipulative of teacher, peers
and system
• Plays adults against each other.
• Comfortable in and often create chaos
– Brain resists change and the child will try to elicit
a familiar response in situations of calm and
predictability.
M.E. Fecser 2012

16. Hyper-arousal
• Easily angered (fight or flight response)
by:
– Perceived threatening affect such as staring.
– Demands.
– Perceived difficult work assignment.
– Anger in others.
M.E. Fecser 2012

17. In more seriously involved children
• Lying
• Stealing
• Fire-setting
• Cruelty to animals
• Apparent lack of conscience
M.E. Fecser 2012

18. Antwone Fisher

21. Traditional Responses to Oppositional
Behavior
• Repeating direction more firmly
• Threats
• Lectures
• Punishment or loss of privileges
• Exclusion (sent out of room, suspended from
school)
M.E. Fecser 2012

22. Conflict Cycle
Child’s Self-concept &
Irrational Beliefs
Stem from:
Pre-verbal and traumatic experiences
(lower brain)
Later experiences/Self-fulfilling
prophecies (upper brain)
Stressful
Event
Staff
response Feelings Thoughts
Emotionaland Frontal Lobes
and/or Thoughtfull Amygdala
(Lower or upper
brain).
Behavior
Fignt/Flight/Freeze
M.E. Fecser 2012

23. Conflict Cycle of Traumatized Children
Child’s Self-concept &
Irrational Beliefs
When others are in control, I am hurt.
Most people want to hurt me.
I have to take care of myself no matter
what the damage to others.
Stressful
Event
Teacher gives a
direction.
Peer stares at him.
Staff
response Feelings
Gives a command, I am in danger.
scolds, punishes.
Behavior
Refusal to follow
direction.
M.E. Fecser 2012 Strikes out at peer.

24. Expression of emotion (fight or flight)
• Puts the brain in
equilibrium by ridding
the body of the
adrenaline.
• Therefore, it feels good,
so we continue to
erupt.
• We need to find
alternative ways to
regulate the brain.

25. Function
• Brain is in survival mode leading to a state of
hyper-arousal and hyper-vigilance.
• Subconscious need to be in control because:
– As infants, never learned that they could control the
world.
– When adults were in control, they got hurt.
• Escape from situations where they have no
control or feel like victims.
• Marvin, age 6 (when asked why he does these
things): “It’s my brain. It just makes me do this.”
M.E. Fecser 2012

26. First steps toward healing:
Calm the lower brain
1. Stop the trauma (i.e. punishment based
programs).
2. Prevent fight or flight response. Otherwise:
– No learning can take place. (A brain in survival
mode cannot be in learning mode.)
– Neural connections related to trauma are
strengthened
3. Create a feeling of safety and security.
– Due to their hyper-vigilance, they see and feel
danger everywhere and are therefore often in state
of hyper-arousal.
M.E. Fecser 2012

27. Goal
• To regulate the amygdala.
• To help them process situations (access their
frontal lobes) in order to better regulate their
own feelings.
• To teach cause and effect thinking.
M.E. Fecser 2012

28. Prevent Fight or Flight
• Pay attention to your own non-verbals and
adrenaline level.
• Use alternatives to directives, such as referring
to the schedule or using gestures.
• Initially, give frequent but brief attention.
Drop a thought or comment and walk away.
(Hovering, being too nurturing may be
perceived as a threat.)
M.E. Fecser 2012

29. Proactive Strategies
Provide structure
• Set clear limits and expectations.
• Use a premacked schedule rather than points or
reward systems which are easily sabotaged.
• Put into the schedule any activities, breaks, or
individual time that he tries to take.
• Call on students in a predictable order or pull names .
• Rotate around the room in a predictable order, giving
regular, positive attention and feedback.
• Maintain close communication with all involved adults.
M.E. Fecser 2012

30. Building Relationships
(Bruce Perry)
• Therapeutic gains can only be made through
relationships.
• Medication does not reorganize the brain.
• Part of evolution.
• Quantity counts
• Relationship must be:
– In tune
– Attentive
– Responsive

31. Building Relationships
• Rather than praise, point out specifically
what the child has done.
• Point out her positive impact on peers.
• Encourage acts of kindness.
• Maintain close supervision, modeling and
reinforcing positive leadership and social
skills.
M.E. Fecser 2012

32. Building Relationships
• Maintain a casual distance (side by side, move
in and back off)
• Repeatedly provide positive experiences in the
environment, relationships, and emotions.
• Create opportunities for student to showcase
strengths and leadership skills.
• Provide 1:1 time with trusted adult.

33. Calm the Lower Brain
• Make sure you are calm
(no adrenaline):
Importance of mirror
neurons
• Breathe deeply and
slowly.
• Acknowledge feelings
and attempts at self- e N ee d f o
hDRAIN OFF
T
r
regulation. DRAIN OFF
• Rhythmic movements. DRAIN OFF
DRAIN OFF
LSCI Institute
61

34. Reactive Strategies
• Always use a calm and concerned voice tone.
Avoid showing anger.
• Avoid arguments. (Student is usually well
aware of the rules and will find loopholes.)
• Avoid directions or commands, lectures, or
asking why. Simply drop a thought or
observation.
• Give controlled choices.
M.E. Fecser 2012

35. Reactive Strategies, cont.
• Prevent and interrupt any bullying.
• Ignore behavior while giving regular,
intermittent attention to child.
• When all else fails, subtly bring in a novel
person.
M.E. Fecser 2012

36. Consequences
• Use only natural or logical consequences
which should be closely related to the
behavior.
• Use benign confrontation to create small
amounts of discomfort about the behavior.
(As in a Symptom Estrangement)

37. Once the amygdala is
calm……
• Begin the timeline. If done non-judgmentally, it
allows for:
– Rhythmic, back and forth conversation that further
calms the lower brain.
– An opportunity to be heard.
– An opportunity to process the situation—move the
feelings from limbic system (lower brain) to the frontal
lobes (upper brain)—by putting order and language to
the intense emotions.
– Writing, journaling: Has proven effective in processing
in victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

38. Ultimately. . . .
• Teach that when caring adults are in control,
the child is safe and his/her needs will still be
met.
M.E. Fecser 2012

39. Effective Style of Caring Adults
• Calm, confident demeanor (calm
assertiveness)
• Provide clear expectations and routines
• Actively involve students in lessons
• Empathic
• Sense of humor
• Listens
M.E. Fecser 2012

40. Trauma-Informed Care &
The Reclaiming Interventions
• Traumatized children tend to fall into one of
two categories; internalizers or externalizers.
(Dissociation vs hyper-arousal)
• Disruption of attachment early in life may lead
to regulatory failure that may be expressed in
either form.
• The Reclaiming Interventions of LSCI address
both types.

41. Trauma-Informed Care &
The Reclaiming Interventions
• It is important for the adult to recognize that kids’
repetitive patterns of self destructive behavior are re-
enactments of their neglect or abuse.
• With both externalizers and internalizers, our goal is
the same: to help bring language (e.g. cognitive
control) to emotion.
• When we equip kids to control their thoughts and
feelings, we give them skills to successfully manage
their behavior.

42. The Role of Trauma
In a Red Flag Crisis
• Children who withhold emotional expression until they reach a safe
setting demonstrate a degree of emotional control not available to
seriously traumatized children.
• Their fight or flight reaction is under some level of modulation, though it
is likely not conscious.
• Yet, children who wait to express their anger, resentment, or fear have a
paradoxical problem; the real life struggles that are the source of their
stress require support systems, but their unleashing of abusive or
violent behavior upon “safe” individuals alienates the would-be
supporters. In that way, the child’s underlying belief that he is unworthy
is validated.
• The LSCI process helps adults avoid furthering the child’s self-fulfilling
prophecy and helps him gain self-awareness and insight into his self-
destructive pattern.

43. The Role of Trauma in a
Reality Rub Crisis
• Children who are hyper-aroused often misinterpret the behavior of others
(Amygdala).
• When a child is stuck in this pattern their brain (hippocampus) searches for
memory evidence that supports their irrational beliefs and faulty perceptions.
The pattern is reinforced over time because of repetition in primary
relationships or the absence of effective models. This is a reactive, externalizing
pattern.
• These kids filter experiences through the lens of needing to believe that they
are right. Because their instinct is to maintain their rigid belief, it is very hard
for them to give in. For kids in this pattern, it is win or lose.
• The goal of the Reality Rub Reclaiming Intervention is to help kids re-frame a
crisis event so they develop a new perspective of the players in the event
(including themselves) and can recognize that their choice to respond
defensively actually created a real risk whereas none existed before.

44. The Role of Trauma in a
New Tools Crisis
• New Tools kids tend to be internalizers. Their inept social behavior
invites rejection and punishment.
• In a New Tools crisis, a child’s behavior can be seen as evidence of
deprivation with respect to social learning.
• Adults help kids make the connection between their good
thoughts and intentions and their wrong behavior.
• Adults provide abundant affirmation of the child’s intentions while
assuring him that learning and practicing new social skills can help
bring about more desirable outcomes.

45. The Role of Trauma in a Symptom
Estrangement Crisis
Five Patterns of Externalizing Traumatic Stress
1. Self-Serving Thinking Patterns & Defenses
2. Lack of Empathy Toward Others
3. Extreme Narcissism
4. Active Impulses
5. Rejects Feedback from Adults

46. The Role of Trauma in a Massaging Numb Values Crisis
The Development of an Internalizer’s Inner Working Model
• Kids who internalize their anger tend to take responsibility for all that
is wrong with life and learn to punish themselves at an early age.
• Some internalizers will behave in ways that get adults to punish them.
This is a way of making the world more orderly and predictable.
Punishment will come, and at least this way the child has some control
over it.
• Some internalizers provide their own pain by cutting or otherwise
causing self-injury.
The Massaging Numb Values Reclaiming Intervention helps kids develop
value for themselves (emotional brain) and increases the likelihood that
kids will respond thoughtfully, rather than react impulsively, when coping
with intense feelings.

47. The Role of Trauma in a
Manipulation of Body Boundaries Crisis
• In Manipulation of Body Boundaries crises, you see the troubling interactions
between an internalizer and an externalizer.
• The manipulator is externalizing his anger; he believes his wants and needs are
primary and creates a victim out of a vulnerable peer who desires his
acceptance and friendship.
• The victim internalizes his feelings, believing he is barely even worthy of
friendship or acceptance and willing to do anything to obtain it—even if it
means being punished (which he believes he deserves anyway.)
• Without adult intervention, the two may continue indefinitely in this mutually-
destructive dynamic.
• The adult plays an important role in helping both the manipulator and the
victim develop insight and awareness about their role in the conflict and how
by continuing to play these roles, they are contributing to their own defeat.

48. Ultimately, what we learn from
brain science is the importance
of changing our approach as
adults towards responding more
supportively and effectively to
troubled children.