Chris Pearson

From UK call on 0754 220 44 45
Consilient Therapy, 45, Ropergate, Pontefract WF8 1JY

Tuesday
19. March, 2024

Chris says: “My practice is based in Consilient Therapy in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. I provide therapy remotely, all around the world using VSee and Zoom.  I’m an eclectic practitioner with an Consilient Therapy logointernationally-recognised qualification in hypnotherapy and a post-graduate degree in applied neuroscience and neuropsychotherapy. 

I work with individuals and groups as a therapist.  I also deliver training at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels, and provide clinical supervision for practicing health-care professionals.

My Practice

Sequent Repatterning logoI have a special interest in the condition misophonia.  I continue to develop specialist therapeutic techniques for the treatment of misophonia.  This treatment is Sequent Repatterning, a therapeutic framework developed specifically to benefit those with misophonia.  (There’s also a page on this site – here – about Sequent Repatterning.)

What is neuropsychotherapy?

Neuropsychotherapy is a word describing a multidisciplinary, brain-based approach to personal therapy. It combines knowledge of the psychology and the neuroscience that underpin thoughts and behaviours, and is firmly rooted in recent research. Neuropsychotherapy – often referred to as NPT – is an approach to wellness that focuses on the mind and thinking, on the body and the world around us, including our interactions with others.

Until the 1990s the term neuroplasticity wasn’t in common usage: the work of researcher Joseph LeDoux demonstrated for the first time that established emotional, behavioural memories are not permanent fixtures once established in the brain. This discovery opened the door to genuine, enduring beneficial change. But, even though NPT seems to be a recent concept, it is definitely not the new kid on the block. Although its development over the last 25 years has been dramatic, it has been a feature of meaningful therapy for many years. Indeed, Sigmund Freud began his professional career researching neuroscience, before he migrated into clinical psychology.

In a nutshell, NPT is different because it is underpinned by proven neuroscience. It integrates many areas of a person’s experience and response through a concept that is called a consistency theory. You can read more about that here

The consistency theory was described by Klaus Grawe, a German psychotherapeutic researcher who published a ground-breaking book called Neuropsychotherapy: How the Neurosciences Inform Effective Psychotherapy. (ISBN 978-0805861228) It is based in the knowledge that behaviour is based in consistency. Consistency is achieved by meeting a small number of core needs – of orientation and control, attachment and interaction with others, and minimising discomfort. These core needs are best achieved within a perimeter of safety: down-regulating fear responses and negative reactions to life’s challenges.

Consistency theory – and NPT as a concept – seeks to focus on experiences of life and the way the brain is responsive and how it changes. Dan Siegel (visit www.drdansiegel.com) uses the term the embodied brain to describe the whole-body neurological system that connects every part of our body through nerves to the part that is in the skull. Stephen Porges – who developed the Polyvagal Theory – refers to neuroception. A ception that complements our sensory perception, our interoception and our proprioception. It is the brain’s awareness, moment by moment, of safety or danger in our world. (See Porges’ book The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, ISBN 978-0393707878, amongst many others.)

NPT seeks the consistency that can be achieved through ‘rewiring’ neural circuits in a natural and beneficial way that is described by the term neuroplasticity. Coherence, though, is focused on the whole person and their embodied brain, rather Pieter Rossouw's book, Neuropsychotherapythan simply a set of symptoms that need to be removed. This is covered in Prof Pieter Rossouw’s book, Neuropsychotherapy: Theoretical Underpinnings and Clinical Applications, ISBN 978-1502744920.

A great deal of what we now include in both neuropsychology and neuropsychotherapy is informed by the work of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel. He demonstrated how biology and biochemistry, neurochemistry and neuroscience, and memory interact at a molecular level to create responses and behaviour in living creatures: from sea slugs to reptiles, to rats, mice and dogs, to monkeys, apes and humans. And in almost exactly the same way with only the degree of network complexity changing. These are concepts of life itself. They are processes that develop to promote our chances of survival as individuals, groups and species.

It doesn’t get more fundamental than that.


I am an approved therapist working with Anxiety UK You can read more about my work with AnxietyUK

 

I am also an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist providing therapeutic support to the charity’s members and partner beneficiaries. AnxietyUK Logo: Approved therapistI am subject to Anxiety UK’s regular monitoring of my professional qualifications, supervision, continual professional development, insurance and professional body membership in addition to complying with the ethical framework and professional standards set down by my registered governing body.

Full details of the Anxiety UK Approved Therapist scheme can be found here.

Details about becoming a member of Anxiety UK to be able to access therapy via the charity can be found here.

 


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