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A Quick and Simple Way to Think about the Brain [Infographic]

149 Comments

Could having a map of the brain help you in your work with clients?

For example, just being able to show your clients what part of the brain controls emotion, or the nervous system, could open the door to helping them learn how to regulate these areas.

So we created an infographic based on the work of Paul D. MacLean, MD and Rick Hanson, PhD that you can share with your clients. (Please feel free to make a copy to give to them.)

Click the image to enlarge


If you’d like to print a copy to share with your clients, just click here: Color or Print-friendly

(When you make copies to share, please be sure to include the copyright information. We put a lot of work into creating these resources for you. Thanks!)

For information on how to apply brain science to your work with clients who struggle with trauma, please click here. You’ll hear from 5 of the top experts in the world on treating the traumatized brain.

 

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149 Comments

  1. David Redman says

    Lovely, clear infographic. Many thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  2. Lenora Wing Lun says

    Thank you. This is a fundamental we use in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. It’s good to have such a clearly explained infographic.

    Reply
  3. Karen Bedford says

    Thank you for creating and sharing these.

    Reply
  4. Richard Nino says

    This is excellent! An effective guide thru the profound complexity of this wonderful and amazing integral part of ourselves. Deep thanks and appreciation to the formulate team.

    Reply
  5. Rachel says

    Be careful with mindfulness. 7% of people who try it have severe adverse psychiatric reactions. It certainly did not help me I have the neurological illness chronic pain. Mindfulness is being recommended for it but when I went on a course I just felt severe pain in my brain. Interesting because the brain has no pain receptors. Mindfulness means awareness, that is all. There are other ways e.g. Yoga of learning mind body awareness. The main thing is to stop multitasking. Human brains are not designed for it. Sorry I had a reference for this but have mislaid it. We are not designed by evolution to live as we do in the modern world. Hence such widespread mental illness and suffering

    Reply
    • Mike Matusky, Student, Everett, WA, USA says

      “We are not designed by evolution to live as we do in the modern world. Hence such widespread mental illness and suffering” Mic Drop. Thank you.

      Reply
  6. Afsaneh Weber says

    Fantastic infographic; simple, clear and intelligible. I definitely will make a good use of this for my clients.
    Thanks,
    Afsaneh Weber

    Reply
  7. Rossen Russev says

    !!!

    Reply
  8. Susan Alexander says

    Fantastic. but will have to print out because printing in captions is difficult to read. Susan Alexander

    Reply
  9. Patricia says

    Thank you for your generosity, Ruth. This will be most helpful to share with my patients.
    Clear, informative !

    Reply
  10. srisht says

    wonderful clear visual for patients to understand why the brain mind work this way
    i have also used other visuals but this one takes the cake
    thank you

    Reply
  11. Christina Dereymaeker says

    I’m very grateful for your generosity. This visual aid will be very useful for colleagues and patients in the department I work as a nurse. So many times patients feel frustrated with themselves because they “feel” fear before surgery. From experience I know it calms them down when they learn that their reaction is “normal” and related to perception and brain function.

    Reply
  12. sheila massoni says

    ty vm am sharing this with my mds who don’t seem to want to listen just write a script for a happy pill

    Reply
  13. Jigy says

    Brilliant by its simplicity

    Reply
  14. Marion Robbins says

    Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing this clear, informative resource! I am not a therapist, but a Yoga teacher, who tries to build inner physical,mental and spiritual awareness into her teaching. Deeply grateful!

    Reply
  15. Dr. Kay Vonne Cason says

    Thanks
    I’m very interested in learning more about the new info in the brain science. It is very interesting. Thirty years ago I was taught and practiced various “spiritual strategies” like visualizations affirmations and vision boards which we called Image Pages back in the day. I guess they were deemed spiritual practices because we did not know how they work. The new brain science tells us how they work. Practicing something over and over again causes neurons that fire together to wire together.
    Dr. Cason

    Reply
  16. Anita Demants says

    Thanks, Ruth and Rick for the simple and easy to understand format. And I appreciate your permission to copy this!
    Just to let you know that I dearly miss the NICABM conferences at Hi,ton Head!

    Reply
  17. Helen Schwencke says

    Interesting and helpful, though it doesn’t mention the “collapse”, “play dead”, “deer in head lights”, “terror” function of a deeply distressed, immobilised person. As I understand it, this is a primitive survival function also.
    Where would that function be represented in the infographic?

    Reply
  18. Beth Jones says

    Nice graphic! Difficult to use in the deep South, as roughly 75% of my clients do not believe in evolution!

    Reply
  19. Shelley Malyk says

    Thank you for this. I provide this info about the brain constantly to clients in the context of emotional regulation, caring for trauma/depression/stress/anxiety and it helps them so much to understand the value of pursuing mindfulness for treatment. Having a visual will be very valuable!

    Reply
  20. Elspeth says

    Thank you so very much for this, Ruth. It is so helpful for people to understand a little of how their brains work audit also helps a great deal towards feeling optimistic about making any changes one might wish to make. I am a nursery school teacher and I work with their parents on self-awareness (mindfulness based) and self-regulation skills as we all learn to support our children in their development. I thank you for this and so many of your wonderful info graphics and videos, all given freely and all such a benefit to humankind.

    Reply
  21. Robert says

    Very helpful.

    Reply
  22. Dagmar says

    Thankyou,
    Love this infographic.
    Having some trouble seeing the writing clearly on the print out on A4 , Might try to print it on A3.
    But great to use on computer and can send to clients phones.

    Reply
  23. Catherine Johnson says

    Thanks for this helpful infographic. Just to say it doesn’t print with the nicabm acknowledgement visible

    Reply
  24. Joan says

    Good information but terrible choice of background and color, very difficult to read orange, yellow or blue lettering on black background for many people with neurological issues.

    Reply
  25. Kim Kuehner, Ph.D., LP says

    I love the handout. It’s not easy to re-print due to the dark background – that also makes it a bit hard to read for some.
    thanks
    k

    Reply
  26. Sarah littlefield says

    Thank you for this handout! It will be very helpful as I explains the triune brain to my clients! Thank you for offering this as a free download!

    Reply
  27. Warren says

    An excellent resource that goes well with Rick Hanson’s instructions to :
    1. pat the lizard
    then..
    2. feed the mouse
    then
    3. hug the monkey.
    These of course refer to each of the brains and how to work with them. Neuropsychotherapy also follows these instructions in the way it structures therapy .

    Reply
  28. ellen says

    Great hand out thank you

    Reply
  29. lisha mejan says

    Thank you. This is a good and useful tool.

    Reply
  30. Sally Tarvid says

    Thank you for this useful tool. It will help me explain to my clients the power of thoughts in determining feelings and actions.

    Reply
  31. Caitriona Nic Ghiollaphadraig says

    Thank you so much for this simple and clear explanation of this complex organ -the brain:)

    Reply
  32. Maria Nagy says

    thank you this is a wonderful resource. I really value all you very up to date information. So useful for working with clients.

    Reply
  33. etaf says

    thank you

    Reply
  34. Patricia Mugridge says

    I have to hand write the copyright information. Even when I change the paper size it leaves the copyright information out. Great handout. Love it!!

    Reply
  35. Madeleine G Boskovitz says

    Lovely.

    Reply
  36. Ethel Barber LCSW SEP says

    Thank you so much for this most helpful tool, Ruth.

    Reply
  37. Sue says

    Thank you Paul, Rick and Ruth, they say two minds are better than one. Three obviously is magical. This will be so helpful in explaining to my clients and their parents just where the treatment is aimed and why. So again thank you for sharing this Ruth.

    Reply
  38. Kim O'Donnell says

    Thank you so much for this! I’ve been using some of Rick Hanson’s Green Zone Red Zone concepts with the children I work with and this will be a wonderful addition to help them recognise when their needs aren’t being met so they can talk to someone about identifying what has to change for them. This is really fantastic!

    Reply
  39. Lenora Wing Lun says

    Thanks

    Reply
  40. Arch Tibben says

    Thanks Ruth

    Reply
  41. Francine says

    just figured out a way so ignore last post.

    Reply
  42. Francine says

    sorry but I can’t seem to down load it. Emailing to myself makes the JPEG graphic unreadable. Any options? It is so good I definitely appreciate your sharing it and would love to share it with clients.

    Reply
    • peter vajda says

      with a pc, try right-clicking on it, choose save it as a graphic, to your desktop.

      Reply
  43. Shar Ishbel says

    Thanks for your generosity in sharing your work.
    Very helpful for clients.

    Reply
  44. Rosalie Epstein says

    At last! an explanation I can understand. A wonderful visual tool.! Thanks for sharing it.

    Reply
  45. Trish Johnson says

    Absolutely brilliant visual tool – thank you so much!!!

    Reply
  46. Bonnie says

    Thanks for sharing this wonderful resource!

    Reply
  47. Terry Richardson says

    Fantastic infographic! I have been reading “Budda Brain” and this will be a great tool for sharing concept with clients.

    Reply
  48. Tobias Schreiber says

    Thank you . Really great way to see and understand the Brain

    Reply
  49. Babette Jenny says

    thanks!!!

    Reply
  50. Diane Marshall, R.P. says

    Thank you! this is brilliant, and a very helpful resource to our Family Therapy Centre.

    Reply
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