This keynote synthesizes the insights from psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics, combining it with the neuroscience of emotional, interpersonal, cognitive, dynamics, with psychotherapeutic approaches to offer an integrated vision of psychotherapy.  The integrative model promotes a sea change in how we conceptualize mental health problems and their solutions.   We can now understand how the immune system, diet, brain structure, and even gut bacteria affect mental health.  Psychotherapists in the 21st Century will by necessity become more like healthcare workers to address and resolve adverse mind-body-brain interactions.

 

Objectives:

• Describe the interaction between the immune system, genes, brain dynamics, and mental health
• Identify how genes can be expressed or suppressed
• Describe how the stress systems can be turned on and are difficult to turn off