Gabrielle Usatynski on ”How to Use Jaak Panksepp’s 7 Core Emotions to Transform Your Relationships, Family, Career and Life”

“Each emotional system is hierarchically arranged throughout much of the brain, interacting with more evolved cognitive structures in the higher reaches, and specific physiological and motor outputs at lower levels.” Jaak Panksepp Watch our interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/siJ1FUeUD40 On today’s Episode #282 we will cover ✔ How Gabrielle Usatynski's NEW book The Power Couple Formula, Applies Jaak Panksepp's 7 Core Emotions to Transform Your Relationships, Family, Career and Life. ✔ What We Should All Know About The Attachment Theory. ✔ A Deep Dive into Each of the 7 Core Emotions and How They Map in the Brain. Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results, with our brain in mind.  I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results using the most current brain research. If there’s a tool, strategy or resource that I find, that could be helpful to improve productivity and results, whether we are a teacher in the classroom, a coach or in the modern workplace, I will share it here. On today’s episode #282, we will be speaking with an important guest, who reached out to me shortly after we released EPISODE #270 with Lucy Biven[i] who co-authored The Archeology of Mind, with Jaak Panksepp.  She let me know she was a couple’s therapist, educator and an author, with a new book coming out next month and was amazed to see our episode with Lucy Biven, as she cites The Archeology of Mind on nearly every page of her new book, The Power Couple Formula: Unlock the Power of Your Instincts and Transform Your Relationship. She even mentioned that a colleague of Dr. Panksepp, Dr. Doug Watt, was currently reviewing her manuscript to offer his guidance on the subject. When this email came through, I was taking a short break from interviews, gathering my bearings with a tight schedule, but when I saw this email, I knew I had to learn more about our next guest, Gabrielle Usatynski, and her new book, the Power Couple Formula. We met briefly to chat, and I’ve got to say that we could have recorded that conversation. She spoke eloquently about her background as a therapist, and the history of our emotions. I couldn’t take notes fast enough, but saw that not only does Gabrielle understand Jaak Panksepp’s work (that many find to be difficult) but she could explain it in a way that made sense to me, with examples of how to each of the core emotions. A bit about Gabrielle: BIO: Gabrielle Usatynski, MA LPC is the founder and director of Power Couples Education. An internationally renowned therapist, speaker and educator, she is the author of the forthcoming book, The Power Couple Formula, scheduled for release this year. She is the originator of ground-breaking online programs that help couples build relationships based on safety and trust and offers professional training programs for therapists in the Power Couple Method.  Her work is regularly featured in such publications as CNN, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Parents Magazine, Counseling Today, and Women’s Health.  For over a decade, Gabrielle has helped thousands of couples. Her clinical work has earned her numerous awards, including: the USA Prestige Award for Couples Counseling Service of the Year, the Best of Boulder Award for Couple and Marriage Counseling, and the Top 10 Best Marriage Counselors of Boulder, CO Award. Gabrielle is a graduate of McGill University and also specializes in the treatment of traumatized children and their families. So today, we will meet Gabrielle Usatynski, and learn how Jaak Panksepp’s work plays out in our most personal relationships, with tools that we can all use and apply right away. Welcome Gabrielle, it’s incredible to see you again. Thank you for coming on the podcast to share your knowledge on what many of us would consider a topic that’s not the easiest to explain because most of us are still trying to understand this topic of our emotions and how they play out in our lives, specifically with our relationships. Thank you for being here. You know I was thrilled to meet you as I just love learning, and making connections, especially when the topic is challenging, or makes you think a bit. INTRO Q: I wanted to ask you first, before diving into your new book, The Power Couple Formula,  Why did you write this book, and why did you focus on the work of Dr. Panksepp?" Q1: I put an image in the show notes of the 7 CORE emotions. Can you explain this chart I put in the show notes, and what Dr. Panksepp discovered about these emotions, that you found to be so important? Q1B: What did Dr. Panksepp discover about where our emotions reside in the brain? Q2: Can you orient us to what therapists were taught about our emotions, The Attachment Theory, and how important it is to completely deactivate this system in intimate relationships? 2B: Why should we understand Attachment Theory, and where does Affective Neuroscience come into this understanding? Q3: How do we use your book as a map, with tools and resource to help us personally, with our family, career, or even with the work we are doing in the world? When I first saw these 7 core emotions, I actually printed them and put them on my desk to see if I could notice them in my life. In the neuroscience certification course I took, we spent a lot of time on the PLAY system (especially as it relates to learning and our schools) but I wonder if we could take a look at your book, and go through 4 of the 7 action systems? Of course, I’d love to cover them all, but I picked the ones that stuck out to what I would think our listeners would like to dive deeper into. Q4: I know that the PANIC/GRIEF system is important, especially as you’ve cited Dr. Bruce Perry who we had on the podcast. What are the impacts of early bonding on our physical and mental health? Q5: What are some tools that could help de-activate panic/grief/rage in our relationships to avoid the conflict that goes along with it? Q5B: As I was reading through the book, I saw that you have strategies to help ALL of the attachment styles. Wouldn’t it help people to know this BEFORE they marry someone so you can kind of guess how things would pan out during conflict? Q6: To close out, is there anything important that we haven’t talked about, knowing that we didn’t cover all the core emotions, but to encourage people to read your book, and learn the strategies for ALL of the systems. What have we missed here? Gabrielle, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your new book with us. For people who want to learn more about you and your book, is the best place your website? https://powercoupleseducation.com Final Thoughts We opened up this episode with a quote from Dr. Panksepp that said “each emotional system is hierarchically arranged throughout much of the brain, and I think the image I put in the show notes and our YouTube interview clearly shows these 7 core emotions (or our 7 basic needs) that are hard-wired deep within our brain stem, bringing Dr. Panksepp’s quote to life in a way that we can now visualize these core emotions within the deepest, oldest part of our brain. When I first began to study Dr. Panksepp’s work, I printed these core emotions and put them on my desk, for me to glance at throughout my day, and I wondered how they were showing up for me on a day to day basis. As I’m reflecting on Gabrielle’s book, and our interview, I’m doing so from how I think these core emotions have shown up in my daily life, and for you, it will be different, but I’m hoping that at least I’ve started the ball rolling to have us ALL think about how to take our understanding of ourselves to a deeper level, using Dr. Panksepp’s Core Emotions and Gabrielle’s book, as a map. Gabrielle was very thorough with her research that you will see within each chapter. I can now see how these 7 core emotions interact with the “more evolved cognitive structures in the higher reaches” of my brain, and this understanding can now help me to see how each emotion I’m feeling, (that’s generated way deep down in the oldest part of my brain) and shows up behind the actions I’m taking. You’ll get a deeper understanding of why you feel a certain way, and why you do the things you do, with this book. You’ll also get to look at why others close to you, do the things they do, as you begin to match Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory to your most intimate relationships. What did I notice with each action system? SEEKING, RAGE/Anger, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/Sadness, and PLAY. Seeking: This core emotion is evident with my need to connect with others around the world and this need is about getting more out of life with continual research and learning. While I can’t jump on an airplane and travel to Australia, India, Sweden or South African (at least not this week), and have conversations with curious minds like myself, I can write and release podcast episodes that travel around the world, to you, on my behalf.  This kind of helps with this action system and keeps me working, and researching. I also need to seek others to learn from, and when the research becomes difficult, I can remember what Dr. Zadina[ii] said on our recent episode, where she would find articles that she was interested in first (seeking) and then read them over and over again, gaining more understanding each time. When you read Ch. 5 in Gabrielle’s book, you can learn how secure seeking develops in relati