Daniel Siegel

Professional Life
Daniel J. Siegel was born in September of 1957 and attended Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from Harvard and continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Siegel worked across many disciplines of psychiatry, including adult, child, and adolescent psychiatry. While acting as director of UCLA’s child psychiatry training program, Siegel also oversaw the Infant and Preschool Service that was active at UCLA. He received several rewards and recognition for his professional contributions while part of UCLA.

Siegel has spent much of his career researching and exploring Interpersonal Neurobiology. He has written numerous books relating to child rearing and parenting, and has published several works detailing his theories on Interpersonal Neurobiology and Mindsight.

Contribution to Psychology
Siegel uses the word Mindsight to describe one’s ability to interpret the emotions and perceptions of others as well as ourselves. This highly focused form of attention teaches an individual to look within themselves and specifically identify and dissect responses and behaviors. Through Mindsight, emotions are recognized and managed in a way that allows one to gain control over their psychological state rather than succumbing to it.

Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), although founded in science, is not limited to the constraints of science. By integrating empirical evidence and therapeutic techniques, IPNB strives to transform chronic psychological conditions. Traumatic experiences that can impair healthy psychological functioning can be reversed by tapping into the never-ending growth opportunities in the brain. By exposing the mind to repetitive positive stimuli and persuasion, patterns of behavior and though there were once thought to be irreversible can be re-patterned to result in healthy and productive actions.

Through his years of research and clinical practice, Siegel has shown that the mind continues to develop neurons and neurological pathways throughout life. This is the basis of Siegel’s IPNB and provides scientific support for the application of IPNB for healing the mind, body, and spirit. Meditation, a common technique used in Mindsight and IPNB, allows an individual to direct their attention inward, focusing on their body’s own reactions to their surroundings. By having a heighted sense of self-awareness, an individual is better able to realize emotions, feelings, and thoughts that existed without their knowledge and thus, be able to identify which areas of themselves they want to change. Siegel founded the Mindsight Institute in order to provide training for IPNB and to encourage clinicians and individuals to learn about the amazing healing properties of this powerful technique.

Dan Siegel Featured on GoodTherapy.org

In February, 2011 Dan Siegel presented Mindsight in Action: How to Create a Healthy Mind, a GoodTherapy.org Web Conference available to clinicians for CE credits.

Books by Dan Siegel

• The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (1999)
  
• Parenting from the Inside Out: How A Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (with Mary Hartzell, 2004)
  
• The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being (2007)
  
• Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (2010)
• The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration (2010)
  
• The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind (with Tina Payne Bryson, 2011)