And that can help them find new ways to respond to a wide range of conditions including brain injury, stroke, learning disabilities, traumatic experiences, depression, and anxiety.
But neuroplasticity involves a number of complex processes, and it can be a difficult concept to convey to patients.
So we created this as a way for you to help patients understand how neuroplasticity works. Because if the brain can change, your patients’ lives can change.
Click the image to enlarge
If you’d like to print or download a copy to share with your clients, just click here: Color or Print-friendly
(If you’re sharing this infographic, please attribute it to NICABM. We put a lot of work into creating these resources for you. If you’re sharing this digitally, please link back to this page in your attribution. Thanks!)
To learn more about advances in brain science that can be applied to your clinical work, look at this short course featuring Stephen Porges, PhD; Daniel Siegel, MD; Rick Hanson, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; and more.
Now we’d like to hear from you. How could you use this infographic in your work with patients? Where do you see the benefits of neuroplasticity? Please leave a comment below.
Thank you for such a concise and remarkably visual diagram. This makes abundantly clear the concepts involved in neuroplasticity. I will use with clients and colleagues.
So much is a mystery unfolding… New knowledge….
Very exciting to share! Thank you!
I am a psychotherapist and I find it difficult to explain what I don’t thoroughly understand. This is helpful to me and will, undoubtedly, be helpful to my clients. Many thanks!
I am a clinical psychologist who uses neurofeedback as part of (or sometimes all of) treatment. This will obviously help explain how what we are doing affects brain function and the importance of also practicing new patterns of behavior in order to solidify change. Thanks!
I love this diagram and will definitely share with clients. However, when I try to print out a copy from the PDF it excludes the first page and prints the second page twice. The JPEG reduces the size so that it prints as one page and the quality is not as great. Perhaps I’m just a bit technologically challenged. Any ideas?
I am having the same problem with printing. The PDF has Page 2 twice and no Page 1. I love the graphic, very informative and yet easy to follow. Please provide PDF for Page 1. Thanks.
The message of hope and possibility is always good!
never mind… found the PDF 🙂
did any one else have difficulty printing this graphic?
couldn’t print the entire graphic…
Hi Lori,
Please use the PDF version to print, it is just under the infographic.
The pdf has page 2 twice, no page 1. Could you please provide both pages of the graphic in the pdf? It’s wonderful.
Thank you so very much! I love the summarized look. It helps bring everything together in my thinking.
Thanks for this – it is a great infographic and really covers what people need to know to give them hope. I like that you have covered the negatives as well as the positives. The pattern-matching aspect of our brains is so often overlooked.
Great, can stimulate conversation, curiosity and new exploration.
Love the concept and appreciate the resource. Any chance I missed the “cheat-sheet” for therapists that accompanies this diagram-so then we can explain it to the clients? I am familiar enough with the other concepts but the section “NP can take place when changes occur in.. ” went above my knowledge base.
DK, the PDF is just under the infographic.
The pdf I downloaded has page 2 twice, no page 1. I hope this can be fixed. Thanks.
Very clear and informative… good tool to share info with patients. Hope it can be translated in several languages
This is an excellent tool to add to the collection because it clearly and convincingly demonstrates how change is possible, behavioral changes, reprogramming, healing old wounds, correcting health issues is all possible… Allowing the client to believe in their own potential.. That’s most of the work done.. Thanku.. A brilliant resource! .. Much appreciated.. Regards Mia
Brilliantly & simply stated, well done! Thank you for your work in this life enhancing enterprise.
Thank you so much! Although the concepts are familiar, and though we may have intense conversation as we work, or just think about it on our own, this visual + language format is great! When one sees it, there is a dfiferent felt sense that arises….and it is one that opens and encourages the very thing we all long for: the possibility of change! What a great, and useful idea, put into action! Thanks for making it available!
Love the handout but when I try to print it, the bottom is cut off and there is no way to print the rest.
Hi Valerie, thank you very much for letting use know. We made a PDF version of it so you can print it without cutting off. Please enjoy.
Thanks so much for this chart Ruth. It has it ‘in a nutshell’ so to speak. I will find it useful with many patients where the aim is to develop new neural pathways but especially for those who have a somewhat paranoid personality adaptation and tend to be suspicious of many ideas, people and things. Being offered a clear explanation, especially with scientific underpinning, is more than helpful for these patients. By the way . . it’s a great summary for me as the practitioner too!!
Wow, this is a wonderful infographic. I talk to all my clients about neuroplasticity and this will be very helpful.
Thanks Ruth! A very useful tool.
This visual really helps understand what is going on in the brain. Thank you.
The visual is often so much easier for clients to comprehend–thank you! Very useful tool.
Thank you for your courses and articles. I’ve been using these concepts in my work with attorneys to educate them on the impact of stress on the brain and as a way to encourage them to engage in practices such as meditation and exercise. Science prevails!
Thank you, Ruth. Especially for making it a download. Seeing a visual makes this easier to internalize for my clients.
Thank you Ruth! Very useful!
When scientifically proven findings are shown to the patients it definitely educates them to make their brain resilient. This in turn makes them to help themselves to overcome their problems
This is excellent! As a TBI survivor (from a SAH caused by an AVM), I am eternally grateful to learn about the brain’s miraculous assets. Following my craniotomy I suddenly started composing orchestral themes, and for the last 25 years have very blessed to be able to have some success with my music. Dr. Darrold Treffert has added my name to the database he keeps on patients where this “phenomenon” has occurred. I am thankful each day as I look back now….for this gift of music in my life….which I doubt would be present without having suffered the TBI.
wow, that is very interesting, I am finding the same thing myself! Wow!
The realization that the brain is neutral and “learns” good as well as bad is an “Aha” moment for those struggling with any type of recovery. Thanks for this!
I’m actually working with meditation and neuroplasticity for myself. Just haven’t been the same since that brain tumor! Thanks for the help.
Thank you for sharing this. A useful tool.
Thank you for putting this out. I do agree with mind being neutral, the direction of thoughts need to be external and can be nurtured. Younger the better.
Thank you for sharing this. Very clear and well proportioned information. Often clients feel so stuck that they believe that they do not have the capacity to change. This illustration confirms that indeed, they do! I look forward to sharing this with my clients.
Thanks for that great tool. This will be helpfull for my clients and colleagues!
Very beautifully collated!! Thank you for being so generous.I and my clients will love this!
Thank you! I’ve been Trina to create this myself!!!!!
thank you this is very helpful for sharing with clients.
Good guidelines in a nutshell. Thanks.
Thank you! This is especially timely, as we have just begun another Regaining Balance Retreat for Women Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. We teach them a very grounding, extended outbreath, mindfulness meditation, art-as-journaling, journaling by hand (in the blank journals we give them), and an awareness developing exercise that culminates in each person writing a poem as well as together writing a group poem. We will share your graphic with our group; thank you so much for making it available!
This is great stuff to learn to know! Yoga is the healing tool in my life. Mindfulness and enjoying a meditation and yoga practice keeps me calm and peaceful. I feel like I clear my brain of negative thoughts and emotions each time. It is clear to me that our breath and connection to source are key to help sustain focus and eliminate what does serve you. I am ! Grateful ! The one thing I would like to improve in my brain is memory. How can I do that?? Some people have the most remarkable memories and others are just like me! Is is what we choose? Why do Iremember certain things and not others randomly? This is my question to you about changing the brain! Thank you for your insight !!
Great resource & clear illustration . Thanks for sharing
Thank you for this awesome visual! My brain lights up as I look at it, and I feel energy running through me. This diagram connects all the dots of new neuroscience I’ve been accumulating for several years. It’s a new tool for my working memory. It’s a great tool for helping others understand themselves and see how to participate in one’s own healing. It offers a plan and hope!
Thank you – I can see a lot of uses for this with my clients as part of the psycho-educational process
Thank you!!
Great tool..thanks for sharing
Neuroplasticity gives me great hope for the future: a cure for various mental illnesses, dementia + PTSD.
Absolutely brilliant – something that I can use with some of my young people who are dependant on mind-altering substances. Thank you so much for this.
It is helpful to have all the info presented so clearly and in one place.
This chart is great because most of the clients I talk to understand that positive effects of neuroplasticity, but don’t realize that negative patterns, repeated over time become entrenched as well and these too can be changed, albeit, slowly and with some difficulty, but still can be changed.
This flow chart would useful in palm size to put into purse wallet ; to be easily referred to when needing a prompt to remind yourself of the steps involved in change.
This is such a great piece of psychoed, I’m excited to share it with clients. Thank you for creating and generously sharing this chart!