Aligning with Gen Z: Challenges and Opportunities

This seminar will consist of five talks centered on the treatment of emerging adults using a developmental neurobiological model, with a particular focus on the unique developmental challenges posed to and by Gen Z.  There will be a panel discussion to conclude the day.

Please note that partial credit will not be given for partial attendance--you must participate in the entire webinar.  Please arrange any other obligations you may have so that you can attend the entire webinar.

US Cultural Evolution and Gen Z’s Internalized Relationship to Power

The relationship between individuals and authority in the USA has undergone a radical evolution since the 1960’s, shaped by cultural, political and technological factors as well as world events.  This section will present a historical perspective regarding events within the United States which have shaped this relationship within the Gen Z generation.

Psychotherapy with Gen Z: The Impact of Being Digital Natives

This presentation explores the unique challenges and opportunities faced by Gen Z, the first generation of digital natives.  Constant access to information and communication through digital devices has significantly shaped Gen Z’s mental health, social interactions, and sense of purpose.  The greater presence of, and reliance on, technology has disrupted neurobiological processes critical for developing safety, trust, and healthy social connections, leading to issues such as anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, loneliness, cyberbullying, reduced attention spans, and diminished face-to-face social skills.  The same digital environment, however, has also opened doors for better mental health support.  Gen Z's online experiences have increased mental health awareness and reduced stigma, making them more open to discussing mental health struggles.  Digital platforms have given them the language and space to express their experiences more effectively.  This section will delve into how being a digital native affects emerging adults' neurobiological and psychological development, using clinical examples from a community-based outpatient treatment center. It also explores how Gen Z is arriving in our treatment spaces and strategies for improving mental health treatment for this generation.

Neuroscience-Informed Treatment of Trauma

In this section, we will explore the understanding and treatment of trauma from a neurobiological developmental perspective, which incorporates the understanding that the experience of trauma is synesthetic, entailing an interaction between all elements of the human organism, including the brain, the body, and emotional/psychological experience. We will look at the key brain regions impacted by trauma and how that impact is translated into felt experience, particularly emotion regulation, self-experience and safety and trust. We will then turn to how these understandings translate into neuroscience-informed treatment, outlining an approach centered on helping emerging adults manage their trauma in a way that frees them to move into the world in a more autonomous and relationally connected fashion. We will briefly consider how we have attuned to gender and gender identity in creating a supportive and sensitive atmosphere that fosters trauma healing.

High on Illusions:  Cannabis Potency, Risk and Science

Cannabis and related products such as CBD, THC, delta-8, etc., and their more widespread legalization, have increasingly gained them public acceptance as “safe” recreational drugs.  This has contributed to a multi-billion-dollar legal cannabis industry which now has powerful and increasing influence on public perception.  Over the same time course, growers and developers of products that originate in the cannabis plant have, through hybridization and extraction, dramatically increased the available potency of intoxicants to users.  While there is robust and longstanding evidence that the increase in potency of THC alone is associated in regular users with a very significant increase in the sometimes-permanent emergence of psychotic symptoms and illnesses, there remain many dozens of compounds in the plant that still have not been studied.  The impact on genetically and environmentally vulnerable individuals is wildly out of sync with the popular impression that use of cannabis and related products is relatively risk-free.  This talk will attempt to expand on the details supporting a much more cautious approach, especially in anyone under the age of 25-30, given that current research doesn’t yet allow us to predict in advance who is most at risk.

Neurobiologically-Informed Family Therapy: Cooking on a Hot Stove

This section offers an original formulation of family therapy from a developmental-interpersonal neurobiological perspective.  Families can present with histories of trauma, loss, and disorganization, and in varying states of conflict, developmentally stalled and deregulated.  Treating these families requires an active, developmentally attuned approach, grounded in contemporary interpersonal neurobiology, and focused on enacted, right brain-mediated, affectively charged patterns of relating within the family that impede developmental progress.  This section will describe recent developments in the field of interpersonal neurobiology and their relevance for understanding the emergence and persistence of individual deregulation within the family.  A model for conceptualizing family process will be described, drawing upon recent neuropsychoanalytic understandings of enactment and their critical role in therapeutic change.  Therapeutic processes of disruption, repair, and reintegration in the context of family therapy will be described.