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Clean Bubbles

SESSION 3: Processing Emotions

This session was inspired by several individuals needing  to address anger management who were all attending group at the same time, but is also relevant for individuals experiencing anxiety symptoms.

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Neuroscience Concepts:

  • Focuses on the brain's evolution from bottom to top and front to back

  • Main structures of the limbic system are examined for their roles in emotional processing:

    • Thalamus (sensory processing, not smell)

    • Amygdala (anger, anxiety, violence, fear)

    • Hippocampus (memory conversion to long-term)

    • Thalamus (home of the ANS, also regulates basic drives like sleep and hunger)

 

  • The branches of the ANS are described as two "settings" of the nervous system, which are controlled by the thalamus in the ancient and automatic "lower brain"

  • The prefrontal cortex ("higher brain") manages all the cool high order functions (language, problem solving, decision making etc.) but notably not anger, fear, violence, or anxiety.

 

  • Higher brain function decreases during the "fight or flight" state (like during anger), reducing reasoning, short-term memory, and memory formation - resulting in impulsive decisions and harsh words and actions we don't remember clearly after the fact.

 

  • Coping strategies for managing anxiety, anger, violence, and fear are all similar and share the primary goal of giving the higher brain enough time and relative calm to come back on line.

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Occupational Focus: Coping Strategy Resources

 

  • Four educational worksheets (Therapist Aid) were provided in English and Spanish after the presentation

    • Participants identified which coping skills they had used successfully in the past and which techniques were new to them.

 

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