Brain Education

Through developments in the field of neuroscience, we have learned more in recent years about how the brain works. With Dr. Daniel Siegel’s hand model of the brain, we learn about our “downstairs brain” (brainstem and limbic area), and our “upstairs brain” (cortex). While our “upstairs brain” is concerned with thinking and reasoning, our “downstairs brain” is concerned only with our survival. When we face certain stressors, it can cause our “downstairs brains” to take over and throw us into fight, flight, or freeze mode, making rational thinking impossible. Dr. Siegel calls this “flipping your lid.” Thankfully, we have also learned that when children and adults understand how the brain works, they are empowered to change what the brain does.