Name: The Neuroscience of Trauma & Dissociation with Dr. Lauren Lebois – How We Can Heal Podcast S4 E9
Uploaded: 2024-09-24T15:41:52.000Z
Duration: 55 min 55 s
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Welcome back to season four of the How We Can Heal podcast.

My name is Lisa Danilchuk and I'm a psychotherapist specializing in trauma treatment.

Transition words & phrases

I created this podcast because I'm surrounded by people who have dedicated their lives to navigating healing.

There is so much wisdom in each guest this season and my hope is that this show makes their important ideas and experiences available to you in a way that uplifts and inspires you.

These guests and I have committed our lives to fostering health and joy in the world even as we work through the impacts of trauma and face deep challenges.

Let's dive into season four and let's keep talking about how we can heal.

I want to give a big shout out and extend a huge thank you to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, the ISSTD, for sponsoring this episode.

If you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you've heard me talk about the ISSTD and the incredible researchers, clinicians, and advocates I've met during my time as a member and a volunteer there.

This group is made up of some of the kindest, most inspiring, intelligent people and I'm happy to be able to share just a few of them here on the show.

This organization has been delving into the science and best practice of treating trauma and dissociation for over 40 years now and they have a rich catalog of educational offerings for both professionals and non-professionals on their website.

If you're a mental health professional, I highly recommend you consider becoming a member of ISSTD.

I'd love to see you during their live educational offerings and at the annual conference in

Welcome back to the How We Can Heal podcast.

Dr. Lauren LeBlois is a cognitive neuroscientist who is passionate about understanding how the mind, brain, and body adapt in the aftermath of trauma.

Her National Institute of Mental Health funded research program focuses on the neurobiology of dissociation in trauma spectrum disorders.

She prioritizes translating scientific breakthroughs in accessible, compelling, and clinically relevant ways.

Dr. LeBlois serves as the chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, or ISSTD.

She's also the operations co-director of the Initiative for Integrated Trauma Research,

Care, and Training at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Recently she was awarded the Alfred Pope Award for Young Investigators from McLean and the

Pierre Genet Writing Award and the Morton Prince Award from the ISSTD.

Dr. LeBlois is deeply committed to using her advances in neurobiology, behavior, and treatments to reduce stigma and improve care for individuals living with PTSD and dissociative identity disorder.

Lauren and I connected some years ago through the ISSTD.

I have always appreciated her thoughtful and thorough presentations, and I'm thrilled to share her with you today.

I've been to a bunch of your presentations and I'm always like, everyone needs to hear this.

So I'm excited to share a little bit of your background, your experience, and hopefully connect people to your work a little bit more.

So I have to ask first, how's everything going with the babes?

Because you and I had kids right around the same time, so it's kind of a miracle that we're both here.

It does feel like a lot, and it's pretty intense, but it's more just like the extremes, just a moment of joy, and instantly, three seconds later, the pits of despair kick off.

You had twins, too, and then you already have one?

I'm already like, oh my goodness gracious, it's a lot.

So I'm curious, just to start, I always love to just go to a little bit of your background.

How did you come to learn about trauma and dissociation?

How did this become such a big part of your world?

I guess I feel like I've learned the most from our research participants.

Hearing them talk about their experiences, what it's like inside their mind, has been so fascinating, and then I think at the same time, I had the great fortune of getting connected with Dr. Melissa Kaufman, who I now jointly direct the Dissociative Disorders and Trauma

Research Program with, but learning from her throughout my training, and she's one of those people who, well, she's an amazing psychiatrist and clinician, and she's just one of those people who asks really beautiful questions of people that they just reveal the most amazing things with the way, just her presence and how she asks questions.

And so I think both from watching her and how she asks questions and hearing how people reply about these things has been where I've learned the most.

And I think I'm someone who's always been fascinated ever since I was little by people's stories, and that moment where you're in conversation with someone and you can see or feel that they feel seen, it's just so thrilling to me.

And so this is a place where I feel like I kind of fell into it by a chance of opportunities.

This is where I can hear the most amazing stories and help in some way by kind of putting a quantitative data point to it.

It helps people feel seen because it describes something that can be difficult to encapsulate or to validate.

And when you come at it from that quantitative or very tangible standpoint, it's like, ah, okay.

And naming it and just letting that land instead of being up in the land of what's happening here.

So what is your day to day work look like?

Are you just like, I just imagine you around fMRI machines all the time.

Yeah, I feel like at this point, my position is much more administrative.

So it's a lot of writing, analyzing data, writing grants, writing papers, managing the lab, mentoring trainees.

I get less face-to-face time with research participants and like sitting at the imaging center.

I don't know if I told you this, but I actually, when I first got to Harvard, I volunteered for a study at McLean.

So I think maybe that's why I just really put you like right in those.

I did an hour of yoga while they watched me and then I went back in after and I just really put you in right there.

And maybe that's near where you've worked and maybe it's not, but yeah.

Well, there's one imaging center, so it's, yeah, it's right there.

That's probably, probably where you and Melissa hang out quite a bit, even though you're doing a lot of other stuff now too.

So I want to try to translate, and I know we're not going to like go through a PowerPoint here, but I, you know, I've seen you present also, I think it was the grand rounds at Harvard.

You had a presentation at some point that you sort of opened up access to.

I want to like help people listen in on that.

So rather than going into like explaining all of like what trauma is and what dissociation is, we've talked a lot about that in other podcasts.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The Neuroscience of Trauma & Dissociation with Dr. Lauren Lebois – How We Can Heal Podcast S4 E9

trauma

practice

fascinating

concept