All you need is love! So what is love?

In this workshop, we will explore the field of neurobiology/neurochemistry to understand what happens in the brain to explain love. Also, how this search for love may lead us into unhealthy relationships with people and substances/food/alcohol, and experience addiction issues.

The early developmental aspects of how we experience love, the need for recognition, appropriate attachment, separation and individuation enable us to be a healthy individual, yet what happens if we don’t have these experiences?

MRI scanning of patients with attachment issues, linked to a childhood diagnosis of ASD, (autism spectrum disorder) or other early developmental disorders, borderline personality, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), helps us to understand the need for human contact which generates the 'love chemicals' that subsequently affect the development of the brain.

Working with clients, it is essential that we understand what the client yearns for and why their need for chemicals from elsewhere is a search for love. Knowing this will inform interaction with, and treatment planning for these clients in their quest.

The workshop will be suitable for: Counsellors, psychotherapists, other therapeutic practitioners, social workers, probation officers and those working with people who are experiencing attachment issues.