In my view, meditation, Buddhism, Taoism, yoga, Guirdjieff, Joseph Campbell’s hero journey, the many different types of psychotherapy — the whole pursuit of “enlightenment” in general — can all be seen as addressing the central issue of the integration of left-right-brain functioning.

Conflict and lack of clarity create discomfort, which interferes with reflection and therefore creates more conflict and sets off more danger signals.

K. had a rather harsh mother who was a perfectionist and was never satisfied. When K. did the inner-child exercises, she found a frightened six-year-old who felt inadequate and was afraid of displeasing her mommy.

The three conditions operate at three different layers of causation: Attention is neurophysiological, having to do with the structure of the brain; depression is biochemical, having to do with wear and tear at the neurotransmitter level; and trauma is dissociative, having to do with the storage and flow of information within the structures of the

Type III depressions can be subtle. They can sneak up slowly and seem logical, and they can include some smattering of either Type I or Type II symptoms. Type III depressions also account for some of the symptoms in people who are diagnosed as dysthymic. In addition, when drug withdrawal, especially of marijuana or nicotine, is involved, even if

For the purposes of this discussion, when we say “left-brained” and “right-brained,” we are talking about two complementary modes of thinking that are at first primarily located as electrical activity in their respective hemispheres. They do not always stay so tightly localized. In people who develop in a healthy manner and remain relatively

Inner-child exercises are about nurturance. Whatever the situation that caused the personality fragment to form, and whatever the emotion trapped in that childlike fragment, the underlying task is to mobilize the part of the person that loves or has ever loved a child and to bring that part into contact with the part that is needlessly suffering.

J. was a rather bright kid with ADD. He was smart enough never to be recognized as having ADD, but he got a lot of negative feedback from his parents and teachers for his inconsistencies. He was a competitive person and, in order to perform well, he developed a rather harsh attitude with himself: He learned to suppress or ignore his discomforts and

You don’t really have to solve the problem for the child. You just have to make the child feel differently. You have to help the child let go of the tension. You have to be there regularly, as long as you’re needed, sharing the wisdom and the experience that were never previously available to this shamed, sad, angry, or frightened child.