Theories of love, relationship,
communication and positive
behavior support
Ailsa Wonnacott, DPSNSW
Margaret A. Moore, Ed.D
Premise
PBS definition – Koegel, et al. (1996)
Reduction in problem behavior
Increase in quality of life (Singer, 2001)
Rooted in behavioral science
Emphasis on person centered values
Individual’s participation and satisfaction with life
Impact on the team, family, community
The success of a PBS plan is contingent on more
than behavioral manipulations and our goals are
broader than reduction in problem behavior.
Expanding our understanding of context
Behaviors are often discussed in this context.
However, there are many other facets to any given
human situation.
Environment
Relationship
Behavior
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For a moment…functional assessment
Environment
Relationship
Individual
Motivation
Behavior
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence
We use antecedent manipulations, environmental
forecasting, address contextual fit with family and
staff members as a part of plan implementation.
In addition, we often review quality of life
indicators in relation to Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs (MANSA, 1999)
We evaluate motivation and cause of the
behavior.
However, behaviors are contextual
There are a large number of influences on context that are
powerful in terms of how our knowledge of these affect
our vision of the person and our planning.
Cultural – subculture, tribal, spiritual
Forms of empowerment – relationships to power
Inclusion – Kunc’s writing focuses on the need for
belonging as more primary than meeting one’s physical
needs
Learning, memory, and experience
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The evolution of the human brain
Paul D MacLean’s model of the triune brain
explains the functional traces of evolution within
the existing structures of the human brain.
(MacLean, 1964)
Ian Tattersall-the human brain was built up over
the ages, structure upon structure. Some inherent
contradictions may result from this. (Tattersall,
1997)
The Brain
The reptilian brain
(Lewis, Amini, Lannon, 2001)
Reptilian Brain or R-Complex-sometimes referred to as the Brain Stem
Mid brain-involved in vision, eye movement, hearing and body
movement.
Pons-motor control and sensory analysis also involved in level of
consciousness and sleep.
Medulla oblongata-maintenance of basic functions such as breathing,
heart rate and blood pressure.
Cerebellum or “little brain” functions are related to coordination,
movement, posture and balance. Large number of neural connections
to cerebrum. Has role in learning and automatizing motor tasks, makes
predictions about how to perform tasks efficiently to prepare other
areas of the brain for optimal performance.
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The limbic system
Thalamus-sensory and motor functions; relays sensory
information to the overlying cortex system-almost all
sensory information synapses here.
Hypothalamus-involved in homeostasis, emotion, hunger,
thirst, circadian rhythms, autonomic nervous system and
pituitary gland. The “Sergeant Major” of glands, controls
pituitary, thyroid, adrenal and gonad.
Amygdala-involved in memory, emotion and fear.
Hypocampus- involved in memory and learning and
recall of spatial relationship in our environment.
Transfers information into memory. It is very vulnerable
to stress.
Cerebral Cortex
Has 2 hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum
The structures are similar, functions may differ but mental processing is
a shared activity-no-one is either left or right “brained”.
Left hemisphere involved in logical/sequential analysis, computation
and direct recall of facts, verbal communication, language, grammar
and vocabulary.
Right hemisphere involved in processing social emotional functioning,
non-verbal communication including face recognition and the quality
of communication (pragmatic language, prosody, tone of voice etc),
visual imagery, intuitive analysis, music, spatial skills and computation
skills (not direct fact retrieval). The right brain is crucial to the process
of attachment and bonding, activation of the Social Engagement
System and affect regulation.
The right brain determines how the left brain will act.
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Why brain structure is important
Brain structure and brain response are elements of
an individual’s internal context that affect
behavioral planning.
The brain is an information processing structure
that receives information from the CNS, and in
combination with the CNS, supplies information
about the safety of the organism.
The Triune Nervous System
Nervous system originally evolved as a survival
system (Immordino & Damasio, 2007) to:
Maintain physiological balance
Initiate threat response behaviors
Polyvagal Theory
(Porges, 2004)
The “first” nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous systemdecreases heart rate, breathing and adrenal function-its behavioral
strategy is freeze or faint-this is the most primitive threat response
behavior.
The “second” nervous system, the sympathetic nervous systemincreases heart rate, breathing, adrenal function-its behavioral strategy
is fight or flight.
These systems are carried in a conduit known as the vagus nerve.
Brainstem- contains the physiological management system and is the
location where the “bundled” nervous system enters the brain.
The nerves are un-myelinated-a layer of electrical insulation.
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A third system evolves…
Only mammals have this system and it is most evolved/complex in
primates, especially in humans, carried in the vagus nerve
Concept of Social Engagement System, a function of the Ventral Vagus
Complex (VVC). The system evolved as a highly sophisticated form of
defense whose behavioral strategy is to engage with other people.
Nerves of the VVC are myelinated and innervate the muscles of the head,
face, eyes and middle ear to produce facial expression, tears, focused
listening, head turning and eye gaze, vocalizations, and chewing.
VVC controls both engagement and disengagement.
In order to function the system must inhibit our more primitive strategies
for ensuring safety (Porges, 2004).
We risk assess people by reading their non-verbal communication. A
neural circuit actively inhibits the areas of the brain related to the 4F
strategies. The assessment process happens more quickly when we see
familiar people
4 F’s
Parasympathetic
nervous system
Freeze or faint
Sympathetic
nervous system
Fight or flight
Social engagement
system
Friendship
and withdrawal
When all else fails, dissolution.
Process of dissolution (John Hughlings-Jackson 1835-1911)
Our most evolved defense mechanism social engagement
activates first to ensure safety through relationship. If this fails
the next most evolved system activates to ensure safety
through fight of flight.
If this fails the oldest reptilian system activates as a last resort
and feigns death (freeze/faint). It is thought that in situations
where the organism perceives imminent death this response
may inhibit the physical and emotional impact of the
experience.
Have you ever seen this?
Let’s talk more about social engagement.
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Let’s talk more about social engagement
There are two main processes in Porges Social
engagement system, neuroception and
interoception.
Neuroception-evaluating YOU
Ability to read others facial cues and body movements to determine if a
person is “safe”.
Learned in infancy as a result of consistent attuned care.
Leads to attachment to the care giver and thereby the ability to form
social bonds with other people.
The process of attachment involves the infant gazing at and tracking
her care givers pupils (Schore 2003, p.67). Through this engagement
infants are able to co-regulate their internal state with that of their
caregiver.
Co-regulation is a physiological state whereby infant and caregiver coregulate both their endocrine (hormone producing glands located in the
brain and organs throughout the body) and autonomic nervous systems
(Hofer, 1990, p.71).
Our future regulatory capacities are established by our early social and
emotional experiences.
Interoception-evaluating ME
Includes conscious feelings and unconscious monitoring of internal
body state.
Uses a feedback system whereby sensors located in the internal organs
communicate with the brain (“Level 3 systems check”).
The brain interprets and processes the information in the context of the
information it has gathered about the environment (especially other
people) and organizes a response.
Motor pathways communicate “response orders” back to the organs to
change their state.
The information is categorized and associated with similar sensory
information and stored as “memory” which will allow it to speed up
response time in the future-we’ll come back to this when thinking about
“memory”.
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Evolutionary and developmental processes
address homeostasis
Central nervous systems functions as the regulatory body
system that processes internal and external information to
determine if all systems are go…
Attachment and bonding processes assist in this
regulation
The sense of safety and security is the first flow
experience (Csikszentmihalyi,1990)
Loss of organism sense to the larger experience/activity
Ability to release need for monitoring of relative safety
Even in perfectly functioning intact systems, the
complexity of the central nervous system results in
incomplete information at times.
In people who are habituated to high stress or have a
history of trauma, the CNS (the parasympathetic and
sympathetic – body systems) may override the social
engagement system, as the CNS does not process a sense
of safety in the same way (seeks familiarity/regulation).
This means that intentional assessment, time, and
planning are needed to assist a person in easing and
restructuring their CNS responses.
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Defining stress and trauma
Stress is defined as “a specific response by the
body to a stimulus, such as fear or pain that
disturbs or interferes with the normal
physiological equilibrium of an organism”
Trauma is “a body wound or shock produced by
sudden physical injury, or an experience that
produces psychological injury or pain.” (Random House
dictionary, 2009)
Identical physical experience to clinical shock
Trauma and memory
Memory does not work like a movie. Information is
stored more like an emotional imprint comprised of
pieces of information associated with the level of arousal
we experienced related to them. It’s the level of arousal
that the felt sense is aware of as a body sensation.
So, healing trauma does not require accurate recollection
or re-visiting of the traumatic event because the memory
is stored in the body it can be physiologically discharged
without the need to re-experience the trauma. Somatic
psychology is a wide field with various approaches to the
physical discharge of trauma in a holistic way-not just a
head up approach.
Trauma and emotion
Emotions direct our reasoning and in turn our decision making process
to the category of knowledge most relevant to the current situation
based upon past experience and this may or may not be accurate given
the nature of memory.
Our repertoire of behavioral options is therefore in service of our
emotional needs and the decisions we make are driven by knowledge
categorized by emotion and arousal rather than logic and reason or even
an accurate sequential recollection of a past event.
It is important to recognize that between stress and behavior is an
emotion, and that the process of recognizing and responding to
situations is essentially emotional and social in nature (Immordino and
Damasio).
Compromised social and emotional skills leads to poor decision making
and impaired logical reasoning.
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Emotional decision making
•
•
I feel tension in this fast, heavy traffic because I
am scared I will be hurt in an accident. It’s all the
fault of these other crazy drivers so I need to
make sure I go even faster than they do so they
can’t cut in front of me and get the better of me.
What can we do for this person?
Where is the information coming from?
The emotional brain turns the internal body sensation into an emotion
which the rational brain will then translate into a thought, concept,
judgment or idea and then into a strategy for meeting whatever it
perceives it needs in order to regulate in the context of the environment.
The components of felt sense and memory collide in the decision
making process.
Rather than analyze the behavior in a traditional functional assessment
format, to analyze using physiological, social, emotional, and thought
patterns makes much more sense.
Environment
Body
Emotion
Thinking (evaluating and strategizing)
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Cycle of events reaction CNS
DaMasio (2004) indicates that one can’t be in 4 f’s and
learn
Between stress and behavior is emotion -that
emotion is structured in past experience (social
engagement system and regulation of it is learned in that
structure, so it is likely not perfect
As memories are not movies, we actually store this
information as
Physical states of arousal
Snapshot pieces of information, which may or may not be
accurate
Memory as symbolic
Body/Mind
Trauma research indicates multiple paths can
reach the traumatized person, that sense memory
processing, independent of rational-emotive
therapy can have some effect
We know that soothing the CNS promotes healing
(Boriskin,2005, Gentry, 2003)
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Relevance of CNS context
Not addressing this CNS context is bad, very,
very bad.
If we are not addressing these things we are likely
retraumatizing or acting against or discounting
impact
Exercise – feel it in my bones, on the tip of my
tongue
Some practices that honor these
underlying causes of behavior
Resilience
Nonviolent communication
Person centered planning
Flow
Restorative justice
Somatic restructuring
Body psychology
Positive psychology
Resilience
A positive behavioral adaptation to significant adversity, stress or
trauma.
Resilience process = stressor > cognitive appraisal (can I cope?) >
development of a strategy (options are to adopt an external focus to
problem solve, an internal focus to manage emotions, social focus to
get help from others or a combination of these).
Many children who are raised in adverse conditions such as poverty,
wartime, social inequality develop destructive behaviors, but some
children are more resilient to these conditions.
Children who are raised in a culture where punitive or infrequent
physical contact is the norm show higher levels of stress and aggression
than children who have comforting attentive care givers and live in a
culture where positive physical contact is typical.
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Resilience
•
Traits of resilient people and communities include; see
problems as opportunities for growth, have the ability to
make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out, have
a positive self-image and confidence in their abilities,
good communication skills, mutually supportive
relationships with others, good problem solving skills, the
ability to manage strong emotions.
Underlying protective processes that support resilience
include nurturing supportive parents, positive
relationships with the community and positive school
experiences.
Resilience is a dynamic quality rather than a permanent
capacity.
Non-violent communication practices
All behavior is in the service of our needs.
The primary purpose of the interaction is connection between the two
people for every communication.
The person with the most awareness is responsible for the relationship.
Attachment to outcome and strategy are flexible and separate.
Imposing your will on another person is the act of breaking the
connection.
A “no” to one thing is a “yes” to something else. Our role is to find
what the yes is.
Everyone in the communication is entitled to having their needs met.
(Rosenberg, 2003)
Person centered planning
The purpose and primacy of person centered
planning in PBS is to understand and address
these other contextual elements.
If you are doing a behavior plan for an individual
without creating and fully implementing a person
centered plan, you are not doing PBS.
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Styles of person centered planning
MAPs
PATH
Frames
ELP
Circles of support
Flow experiences
Flow is “the mental state of operation in which the person
is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by feeling of
energized focus, full involvement, and success in the
process of the activity”
Optimal experience for learning
Csikszentmihalyi, 1998)
The doing is the reward as there is constant feedback in the flow
experience
Not easy, can be quickly disrupted
It is the intentional restructuring of attention and mental
focus and allows for routine daily activities to become
opportunities for an optimal experience.
Components of Flow
Clear goals
Concentrating and focusing
A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness
Distorted sense of time
Constant feedback from the experience
Balance of ability level and challenge
A sense of personal control (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1998, 2002)
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Restorative justice
Justice is a basic human need (Taylor, 2006).
A model of repairing harm (often criminal) based
on not what rule/law is broken, but how to repair
the harm. It works under the premise of
collaboration and compromise. Restorative justice
addresses the harm to the community as a whole
rather than to an individual person.
This practice has been used with people in prison,
schools, and with a large variety of diagnoses.
(Mara Sapon Shavin, 2001; Tom Cavanaugh, 2007)
This means there is a need to examine the
individual’s, one’s own behavior and others in
relation to the plan
4 f’s
Resilience information
Person centered planning
Communication practices
Verbal
Nonverbal
Lack of congruence of verbal/nonverbal information –
NVC support of all need present – imposition of will
breaks connection
Body support
Mind support
Self-regulation
As a primary need
As balance of body/mind regulation
sensory, emotive, intellectual, experiential information is all involved
Felt sense – the internal and external conditions that blend to create
experience
Neuro and intero- ception – monitoring of safety external and internal
(via organ/digestive/pulmonary) states
And beyond this is suspension of own immediate need to the betterment of
the community
Balance of group needs/dynamics
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Group responses parallel individual
seeking homeostasis
(Alfs, 2005)
Individual responses mirrored by system responses
Systems/societies act as whole
Mechanisms are nested – individual in culture in
relationship to group as well as self
Paradigm shift – ordinary folk just changing mind
Change head needed
Executing Personal control
So, the day-to-day questions are:
What is your ability to sustain and support
behavioral momentum?
How are you energetically contributing to or
detracting from group/relationship?
What supports you to sustain and support yourself
as a positive contributor?
Guiding people is what is happening
Foods, meds, physical is incidental.
This and behavior are most of what we measure… true or
false.
Measure community access – went to library… is this
engagement
Developing a satisfied team –
Intrinsic rewards in human service systems
Making dinner is not necessarily intrinsically rewarding …
Transforming routines into personally meaningful experiences by
setting goals/rules
How are you defining success… did they eat/ did they relate and
commune the whole time…
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Questions
[email protected]
[email protected]
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