Excited to be joiining
@louisemchugh @theamygdaloid
@SilbersteinPsyD @DennisTirchPhD
and @StevenCHayes
as @myACBSWC #ACBSWC kicks off #online - #Emotion and #Self processes - time to get my #livetweet on!

Panel discussion begins with @theamygdaloid introducing his work on the #amygdala & its role in threat responding: the #amygdala is a non conscious threat detector, processing implicit fear that has become a cultural meme for #fear

#Amygdala detects threat and activates defensive survival circuits that prepare an organism to respond effectively, which is implicated in but separate to the conscious human experience of "fear" which recruits cognitive processing

Evolutionary processes: approach and avoidance behaviours are as old as life itself. They're not about psychology, they are a direct manifestation of mammalian survival imperative that started with the very first organisms. We project human "emotions" onto them.

@louisemchugh introduces her research on self concept and behavioural and learning and its relationship to flexible perspective taking. Putting a flag in the sand on the idea of the #self: difference between behaving and verbally responding.

All experiences we have are quickly evaluated. We derive networks of meaning continually that feeds our self story. We are reinforced for sharing our story of ourselves vs noticing the stories we tell about our experience which can be problematic clinically - @louisemchugh

@StevenCHayes: we don't want to get lost in complexity, but it is useful to see how interrelated some of these concepts can be. Multilevel multidimensional synthesis is of interest in the behavioural wing.

Emotion traditionally in BA was conceptualized with reference to survival functions but originally lacked a good account of symbolic and verbal processes to support pragmatic intervention - @StevenCHayes

Intervention & shifting processes is useful AND it needs a filter - if everything is interrelated, how to filter to support prediction, influence & change? #CBS offers ways of structuring intervention for individuals w/ neurodevelopmental capacity for language - @StevenCHayes

#CBS also offers new frames for supporting people in pain when relations between words & ideas are experienced as threats to survival, enabling people to step back & develop new repertoires of compassion & action - @StevenCHayes

#CBS includes things that support people to change the trajectory of their lives, supporting people to filter out "anthropromorhosizing" of emotions as potential threats to survival and effect when unhelpful to do so - @StevenCHayes

@DennisTirchPhD - the very act of discussion of these topics ripples in an embodied way: it includes all past and present relational networks, our bodies, our breath, our relationships. In a very real way, however we verbally construe it, it is interrelated.

Toward and away is built into our cells to promote survival, yes, AND also ato llow organisms to bring forth new worlds: to develop ultimately symbolic & self-aware processes so it can know itself - @DennisTirchPhD

Co-operation is essential to support the development of our young. Our human young are born extremely vulnerable: rely on others for survival. Compassionate, caring, connected experience becomes essential to our capacity to exist & make meaning - through "We-ness" @DennisTirchPhD

To develop behavioural workable flexible repertoires of self, we come to rely on repertoires of soothing and stabilisation to understand our experience. We need others to flourish as ourselves - @DennisTirchPhD

@theamygdaloid - emotion is a narrative driven way of making sense of an salient non-conscious experience. The conscious you doesn't tell the story, the non conscious self feeds the narration