Get the neuroscience knowledge you need
to become the outstanding coach
or helping professional
you know you can be
And earn 24 CCEUs with the ICF
The next session of the Certificate Programme in Applied Neuroscience is scheduled to start in September.
To be the first to learn when enrolment opens next, please join the waitlist.
Here's what you'll learn:
Module 1 - Meet Your Brain
We'll take a quick tour through the brain and nervous system. I say quick, because we’ll only be scratching the surface of everything there is to know about the anatomy of the nervous system, but it will give you what you need to know about how neurons speak to each other, how the brain is divided, and how the nervous system is organized. This is an important course because it is the basis for understanding all brain function.
Module 2 - Neuroplasticity
The brain develops through experience, starting in the womb, and continues throughout our lifetime into old age. You'll learn what it takes to change the structure and function of our brain, how stress affects neuroplasticity, whether learnings are transferable to other skills, how our genes influence learning. And more...
Module 3 - Focus and Decision-making
You'll learn about the prefrontal cortex and its role in cognition and thinking, how the brain chooses where we place our focus, how multi-tasking is just fast task switching and carries a heavy cost, and how decision-making, thinking and emotion are related.
Module 4 - Willpower and Motivation
We all have goals. Yet often, our motivation fails. In this module, you'll learn how to structure goals so that we increase our chances of achieving them, the role of dopamine in motivation, how we train ourselves for failure, the right way to visualize (visualizing success can lead to worse performance), how to overcome procrastination, how we can ensure a constant supply of willpower. And more...
Module 5 - Making Progress Every Day
Habits are sometimes considered a dirty word, but they are absolutely the best way to win at your resolutions and achieve more in life and work. A habit is a more or less fixed way of thinking, acting, or feeling that we’ve acquired through repetition. And part of being a powerful coach or helping professional is to help your clients create successful habits, whether it's around their health, their relationships, or their business, that will serve them year round. You'll learn about what it takes to create strong habits and what gets in the way.
Module 6 - Creativity and Problem Solving
Insight is the sudden solution to a long-vexing problem, a sudden recognition of a new idea, or a sudden understanding of a complex situation and it is available to everyone. You'll learn about the five stages of insight, and the conditions for insight to appear.
Module 7 - The Science of Flow
Csikszentmihalyi has characterized flow as “The state in which people are so intensely involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it”. In this course, you'll learn:
- How flow appears in our lives and how it benefits us
- The key elements of flow and the conditions for its creation
- What recent neuroscience has discovered about what is happening in our brains during flow experiences
- What can happen if we take flow too far
- What it means to live a life of flow and how we can create it
Module 8 - The New Neuroscience of Emotion
You'll learn about the new theory of constructed emotion and how it debunks the old triune brain theory of emotion which emphasized the amygdala and limbic system as the seat of emotion. We look at the importance of the body budget, how emotion is a whole brain thing, how the brain constructs emotion from incoming sensations and past experience, and how it can be wrong. And more...
Module 9 - The Neuroscience of Stress
You'll learn how the brain responds to different kinds of stress, the role of the amygdala in the stress response, neurotransmitters and neurohormones, how our beliefs about stress can mitigate the stress response and prolong our lives, how reframing stress can actually help us use stress to our advantage, and we also look at little-known ways to relieve stress. We also look at cardiac coherence and how it can propel us into a more positive emotional state and prolong our lives.
Module 10 - The Neuroscience of Resilience
You'll learn that, when we're resilient, we're able to bounce back and even thrive following adverse events. Research has shown that resilience is ordinary, not extraordinary. You'll learn the behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone to create resilience.
Module 11 - The Neuroscience of Relationships
Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. In this course, we look at how our neurobiology is involved in perceiving, thinking about, and behaving towards others.
Module 12 - The Gut-Brain Connection
You'll learn how the gut communicates with the brain; how much of the body's neurotransmitters are produced by the gut; the long-term effect of childhood trauma on the gut microbiome, behaviour, and the brain; the benefits of a healthy diet for depression and cognitive functioning, and on brain structure; and the components of a healthy diet.
Module 13 - Exercise and Brain Health
Exercise, along with a healthy diet and getting adequate sleep is a simple way to improve cognitive functioning, psychological wellbeing, and protect against cognitive decline. You'll learn how exercise can improve children's attention and executive control. You'll also learn how important exercise is for healthy aging, how it can have immediate effects on cognitive functioning, and how it's a proven method for improving psychological wellbeing.
Module 14 - Sleep and Brain Health
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout our life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect our mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. You'll learn how sleep is important for learning and memory, alertness, sustained attention and cognitive flexibility, how chronic short sleep reduces alertness and cognitive flexibility and how this is cumulative, and how attempting to recover our sleep debt on weekends still leaves us with attention deficits. And more...
PLUS
Weekly group Q & A calls where you can ask questions, get answers, and interact with other students live.
Private Facebook group is where we post articles and questions, and where I'm active.
