Reptilian Brain

By: Dr. Suzanne LaCombe, September 2006.
Updated: November 22, 2007.

The Reptilian Brain: "The emotional alarm center for the brain".

Wonder why there's a reptile as a mascot for this site? The reptilian brain controls much more of our behaviour than we realize--part of my objective of this site is to emphasize this fact.

This is one of the key insights from body psychotherapy. When you calm the reptilian brain, you have more control over your thoughts and your intentional behaviour.

Our brainstem is a top-of-the-line reptilian brain.

The reptilian brain is located in the brain stem and both terms are used synonymously.¹ Phylogenetically-speaking, it was the first part of the modern brain to develop in human evolution. It operates behind the scenes, regulating our survival needs: food, oxygen, heart rate, blood pressure and reproduction, among many others.

The brainstem is like a bodyguard who's always watching your back, constantly scanning the environment for potential threats. The reptilian brain also decides whether you will move into fight or flight. The thinking brain is too slow for such an important task.

So for example, when a 90 mile an hour curve ball's coming at you, it's the reptilian brain that reflexively jerks your head out of the way before you even realize what’s happening.

We can't leave our reactions up to the thinking side of the brain. We'd still be back there lying on the playing field wondering what happened and how we got that lump on the head!

When you think of your "instincts" think, reptilian brain. It's responsible for our survival related functions like:

• breathing
• digestion
• circulation
• elimination
• temperature
• fight or flight
• movement, posture and balance.

The Reptilian Brain and Counseling

Harness the energy of the "24/7 bodyguard" and put your counseling on the fast track!

The reptilian brain is an ancient beast. It was developed over 100 million years ago. The higher brain or the neocortex came along a mere 40,000 years ago. So, when the reptilian brain is on alert, it's pretty hard for a youngster like our neocortex to tell a 100 million year old brain to behave!²

One of the insights we've learned from body psychotherapy is that hardship in counseling is needlessly provoked if the reptilian brain isn't calmed down first. That is, it's very difficult to dig into our psyche (e.g. and explore childhood issues) when the reptilian brain is calling the shots.

However, when the nervous system is regulated and balanced, it far easier to move through our emotions.

Emotionally triggering material will be that much more difficult if the reptilian brain is activated. When you are suffering from high anxiety--by definition--your activation level is high and the reptilian brain is controlling too much of how you will respond to events in your life.

As an aside, the more the reptilian brain has learned from early infancy experiences and subsequent traumas (both physical and emotional) the higher our activation will be. For many people, high activation will show up in anxiety symptoms. And as I have described elsewhere, chronically high activation (sympathetic arousal) can lead to depression (parasympathetic dorsal vagal).

What's often difficult for us to accept is the fact that the brainstem (in partnership with the limbic system), determines and conditions a great deal of our behaviour. The higher our level of activation, the more this is likely to be the case.

As human beings we like to believe that we're "rational", that our actions are based on thought, not "blind emotion". There is no such thing actually as blind emotion. Our emotions have rational explanations even of we cannot locate the source.

My Personal Musings

I think some people have not taken up counseling for the very reason that they suspect it will make them feel worse. There may be some truth to this. My guess is that their reluctance is related to the idea of being thrust into material before they're ready.

If a therapist starts to probe emotionally triggering material before the nervous system has settled sufficiently, the level of activation will increase. One may even experience an increase in anxiety symptoms!

How do you know when you're ready?

If you're agitated or racked with anxiety then the conditions are not optimal for deep emotional work. When your relationship is developed sufficiently between you and your therapist, you will naturally step into the material and feel sufficently safe in doing so. When this is happening for you then the conditions are optimal for change to occur.

One of my inspirations for developing this website was the discovery of friends and colleagues who had undergone a course of treatment and--from my perspective--seemed worse off.

I acknowledge that it isn't easy to assess when you're getting good therapy from not-so-good therapy. The reality is that one therapist cannot simply know all there is to know about working with everyone.

Hopefully, armed with enough information on this and other counseling websites, consumers of mental health services will be able to make good decisions on their choices in psychotherapy.

Reference

Levine, Peter, A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.

McLean, Paul, D. [1990]. The Triune Brain in Evolution. New York: Plenum Press.

Notes

¹"...the portion of the brain that is continuous with the spinal cord and comprises the medulla oblongata, pons, mid-brain and parts of the hypothalamus; controls reflexes and such essential internal mechanisms as respiration and heartbeat." Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionay (2006).

²Dr. Daniel Siegel made this same point at his lecture, "Psychotherapy from the inside out: The brain of the mindful therapist", at the Justice Institute in New Westminster, BC., in November 8-9 2007.

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