The Rumination Loop: The Neuropsychology of Negative Thinking and How Therapy Changes the Brain

Rumination and repetitive negative thinking are common across depression, anxiety, trauma, shame, perfectionism, and other clinical presentations, yet clients often struggle to understand why these thought patterns feel so automatic and difficult to interrupt. This 2-hour continuing education webinar for therapists explores the neuropsychology of rumination, including the brain networks and cognitive processes that contribute to self-referential thinking, threat detection, attention bias, emotional salience, and reduced cognitive flexibility.

Participants will examine how interactions among the default mode network, salience network, executive control systems, memory processes, and emotional regulation can help maintain repetitive negative thought patterns. The program will also explore how rumination differs from worry, intrusive thoughts, and obsessional thinking, and why attempts to suppress or “think positively” often fail.

The second half of the webinar will focus on evidence-based interventions that can help disrupt these loops, including CBT, ACT, mindfulness, DBT, behavioral activation, exposure-based strategies, and metacognitive approaches. Emphasis will be placed on how these interventions can support cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, attentional control, and adaptive learning. Participants will leave with a practical neuroscience-informed framework for helping clients recognize, interrupt, and reshape persistent negative thinking patterns.

Clinical focus of this training: Translate contemporary neuroscience into practical strategies therapists can use to reduce repetitive negative thinking and strengthen flexible, adaptive responding.

This introductory continuing education webinar is designed to help mental health professionals:

1. Describe at least three neuropsychological mechanisms and large-scale brain networks associated with rumination and repetitive negative thinking.
2. Compare rumination with worry, non-obsessional intrusive thoughts, obsessions, and productive problem-solving using at least two distinguishing clinical features.
3. Apply a neuroscience-informed case formulation to select at least two evidence-based interventions that target maintaining mechanisms of rumination and support cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, attentional control, or adaptive learning.

Statement of program material's accuracy and utility: This program presents clinical and scientific information about rumination and repetitive negative thinking drawn from peer-reviewed research and established psychotherapy literature. The material is intended for mental health professionals who want a practical, neuroscience-informed framework for case formulation and intervention selection. Neuroscience findings are presented as group-level, translational evidence rather than as a diagnostic brain-scan model, and the program distinguishes evidence-supported findings from areas where conclusions should remain cautious. The clinical strategies discussed—including CBT, ACT, mindfulness, DBT-informed skills, behavioral activation, exposure-based strategies, rumination-focused CBT, and metacognitive approaches—should be selected according to the function of the rumination, diagnosis, level of arousal, cultural and contextual factors, and the client’s treatment goals.

Statement of program material's most common risks and limitations: No single strategy is appropriate for every client. Common risks of misapplication include overpathologizing normal reflection, invalidating realistic concerns, increasing self-monitoring or ruminative analysis through excessive cognitive work, or applying an intervention without adequate attention to diagnostic specificity, pacing, and clinical context. Particular care is warranted when repetitive thinking occurs in the context of OCD, PTSD, grief, psychosis, or other presentations in which the function and treatment of repetitive thought may differ. Clinicians should use these concepts within their scope of competence and incorporate appropriate assessment, clinical judgment, consultation, and individualized treatment planning.

Declaration identifying any potential conflict of interest and/or commercial support: No conflict of interest indicated.

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact GoodTherapy here.

How the Web Conference Works

Before the scheduled event, all registered attendees will be sent a reminder email from GoodTherapy with specific instructions on how to log in to the webinar, as well as links to optional handout materials if applicable.

To attend the event, registered attendees will log in to the Microsoft Teams web conference center using a computer or device with internet access and/or call into the teleconference line on a phone. Attendees will be able to submit questions during the webinar via text chat in the Microsoft Teams web conference center and will be able to see the live streaming video and/or document sharing. 

At the conclusion of this event, participants will receive an email with information about how to request a CE certificate in your GoodTherapy Account. To confirm attendance, participants must enter the start code and end code announced at the beginning and end of the live presentation. Participants will also be prompted to complete an online survey evaluating the event. Participants will need to complete this online survey within six days after the event. Once completed, participants will be able to download a copy of their CE certificate right away by logging in to their GoodTherapy account.

For additional information about this event or our CE grievance procedures, please contact us here.

Continuing Education (CE) Information

2 CE contact hours will be provided by GoodTherapy for attending this web conference in its entirety. 

GoodTherapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 3/30/2025 – 3/30/2028. Social workers completing this course receive 2 continuing education credits.

GoodTherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395. GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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