Neuroscience Committee

Neuroscience Committee Objectives & Goals:

Objective 1: Support membership in identifying appropriate neuroscience- informed counseling practices
Many counselors are interested in ways to competently and ethically integrate neuroscientific principles within their counseling practices to address the unique needs of the clients that they serve. To address the need in our profession, many individuals and companies have proposed and developed approaches that are touted as being informed by neuroscience. However, some of these proposed approaches do not have a direct connection to neuroscience research. Others may be based on overgeneralized applications of animal studies or simply misunderstood adaptations of research in neuroscience. As such, one of the main goals of this committee is to act as a sounding board to assist counselors in evaluating neuroscience-based counseling practices.

Goal 1: Maintain responsiveness to emails from membership regarding inquiries about neuroscience-informed counseling practices
Goal 2: Consult with neuroscience committee members and/or key stakeholders in allied counseling organizations regarding the validity of practices in question

Goal 3: Make efforts to reach out to individual trainers and/or companies that promote specific practices to better understand and evaluate the neuroscience research used to develop said practices in question

Objective 2: Increase visibility and availability of research relating to neuroscience and addiction and/or work with offender/forensic populations The committee recognizes and encourages research that is completed in an ethical manner that utilizes principles of neuroscience to enhance addiction/offender teachings and practice. In recognition of this work, the Neuroscience Committee aims to collaborate with the IAAOC Awards Committee to institute the Neuroscience Informed Addiction/Offender Counseling Research Award. This award seeks to highlight the impact that neuroscience has on holistic addiction/offender/forensic practices.

Goal 1: Collaborate with the Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling as well as search additional counseling journals to identify recently published articles that utilizes and/or discusses the role of neuroscience in addiction/offender counseling

Goal 2: Create partnerships with the Awards Committee
Goal 3: Begin processes to initiate the creation of an award through IAAOC that recognizes advancements to addiction, offender, and/or offender/forensic counseling that focuses on neuroscience