53 min
Lou Cozolino: Executive Functioning and Leadership Mindful Warrior Radio
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- Self-Improvement
On episode twenty-seven of Mindful Warrior Radio, we welcome Dr. Lou Cozolino. Dr. Cozolino practices psychotherapy and consulting psychology in Beverly Hills, California. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School. Lou has been a professor at Pepperdine since 1986 and lectures around the world on psychotherapy, neuroscience, trauma, and attachment. With more than 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist and coach, Dr. Cozolino connects, attunes, and interacts with adults, adolescents, and families as they face a wide variety of life’s challenges. Working primarily from a psychodynamic model of treatment, Lou also employs strategies and techniques from other forms of therapy, including CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), family systems, and humanistic/existential therapeutic interventions. In our recent interview Dr. Cozolino unpacks his theory of and approach to executive functioning. He says, “I was doing psychotherapy, and I thought, well, you can't really talk about executive functioning as a cognitive process alone because the cognitive and emotional networks are all interwoven in the brain.” Dr. Cozolino also tells us that vulnerability is the best place to start when developing executive function. He says we all need “to equate vulnerability with strength. To move forward, you can't hold on too rigidly to the ideas and beliefs that got you to where you are. So, those things got you here, but they're not going to get you to the next step. But people tend to continue to repeat the things that have gotten them to success because it's hard to imagine that they could change and get even more successful.” He also describes the haunting feeling that can lurk inside even the most successful people. He says, “If you're a CEO, you're already successful, but you're not as successful as perhaps you feel you could be. You have this instinct that you have a kind of dark passenger: Like there's something inside of you that's keeping you from moving forward. And I've had some CEOs tell me that they've even personified it like it's a dark man that visits them at night...and that's just the projection of something inside. So, one of the greatest joys in life is finding someone who's successful but is haunted. And figuring out what else is going on inside of them so that they can free themselves from that. So, they can be done with that and move forward and not just work for a living, but really love working.” Dr. Cozolino explains what happens to executive functioning when we are in a state of fear. “I try to teach everyone that if you are afraid—or if you're highly aroused or activated—that the first executive system inhibits the other two executive systems. When you're scared, there's no real learning.” To learn more about Mindful Warrior and Mindful Warrior Radio please follow us on Instagram @therealmindfulwarrior and check out our website at www.mindfulwarrior.com
On episode twenty-seven of Mindful Warrior Radio, we welcome Dr. Lou Cozolino. Dr. Cozolino practices psychotherapy and consulting psychology in Beverly Hills, California. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School. Lou has been a professor at Pepperdine since 1986 and lectures around the world on psychotherapy, neuroscience, trauma, and attachment. With more than 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist and coach, Dr. Cozolino connects, attunes, and interacts with adults, adolescents, and families as they face a wide variety of life’s challenges. Working primarily from a psychodynamic model of treatment, Lou also employs strategies and techniques from other forms of therapy, including CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), family systems, and humanistic/existential therapeutic interventions. In our recent interview Dr. Cozolino unpacks his theory of and approach to executive functioning. He says, “I was doing psychotherapy, and I thought, well, you can't really talk about executive functioning as a cognitive process alone because the cognitive and emotional networks are all interwoven in the brain.” Dr. Cozolino also tells us that vulnerability is the best place to start when developing executive function. He says we all need “to equate vulnerability with strength. To move forward, you can't hold on too rigidly to the ideas and beliefs that got you to where you are. So, those things got you here, but they're not going to get you to the next step. But people tend to continue to repeat the things that have gotten them to success because it's hard to imagine that they could change and get even more successful.” He also describes the haunting feeling that can lurk inside even the most successful people. He says, “If you're a CEO, you're already successful, but you're not as successful as perhaps you feel you could be. You have this instinct that you have a kind of dark passenger: Like there's something inside of you that's keeping you from moving forward. And I've had some CEOs tell me that they've even personified it like it's a dark man that visits them at night...and that's just the projection of something inside. So, one of the greatest joys in life is finding someone who's successful but is haunted. And figuring out what else is going on inside of them so that they can free themselves from that. So, they can be done with that and move forward and not just work for a living, but really love working.” Dr. Cozolino explains what happens to executive functioning when we are in a state of fear. “I try to teach everyone that if you are afraid—or if you're highly aroused or activated—that the first executive system inhibits the other two executive systems. When you're scared, there's no real learning.” To learn more about Mindful Warrior and Mindful Warrior Radio please follow us on Instagram @therealmindfulwarrior and check out our website at www.mindfulwarrior.com
53 min