What is the Biopsychosocial Model?

In this episode, we explore the topic of the biopsychosocial model and its application to client treatment and intervention.

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Contact Information:
Jerrodb@pathwayscounselingcenter.org

Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or mental health advice. The content discussed should not replace professional judgment, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical or psychological concerns. The views expressed by our hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of any affiliated organizations.

Credits:
Executive Producer, Host: Jerrod Brown, Ph.D., M.A., M.S., M.S., M.S., M.S., M.S.

Producer, Technical Director: Megan Eichten, AAS, CPT, CES (NASM)

Audio Engineer, Sound Designer: Jen Carter, BS

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Everyone to our next episode for the Psycho Gastroenterologist Podcast Program through Pathways Counseling Center. In this episode, we are going to take a deep dive into the biopsycho social model. My name is Jared Brown. Here's my email address on this first slide. If you are listening to this audio only, we encourage you to check out our YouTube channel where you can see the visual slides as I'm moving through today's talk. Here's a copy of my brief professional biography. I wear a couple different hats. I'm a professor, trainer, researcher, and consultant. And these are some of the areas that guide and inform the work I do. I do a lot of work in the area of neurocriminology, neurocounseling, lifestyle medicine, health disparities, and the gut brain access. We'll talk about all these and many more in upcoming episodes. Our agenda today, pretty straightforward. I'm going to first talk about a number of different fields of study that I think can really complement the biopsychosocial model nicely. Part two today, we're going to talk about what is the biopsychosocial model, part three, all about intake, screening, interviewing considerations through a biopsychosocial lens, and then we'll wrap up with a number of different strategies and solutions that you might find helpful when you have a biopsychosocial model hat on. So as we get into this, I think it's really important to have a brief discussion about a few areas of study that I think really enhance and complement the biopsychosocial model very nicely. The first area is lifestyle medicine, and we are actually going to have a multi-part series on our podcast program talking about the different aspects of lifestyle medicine. But basically, in a nutshell, lifestyle medicine is really a holistic approach. It takes into account the whole person, it really considers what your client eats, their sleep patterns, their social health, exercise patterns, and many, many more. Lifestyle medicine, it's a wonderful field of study that there's many, many studies out there that show this can be very helpful for enhancing client outcomes. Another field of study that I think complements the biopsychosocial model nicely is health psychology. Basically, health psychology in a nutshell is also focused on the whole person, the mind-body connection. And if you study the field of health psychology, you're going to obviously have a great understanding about psychology, but also biological factors that could impact your client, exercise factors, sleep health, nutrition, social and stress factors. And the list goes on. Another big field of study I love that complements the biopsychosocial model is behavioral sleep medicine. If you're working in the field of mental health, addiction, trauma treatment with just as involved populations, I would say if you if we believe the research, most of your clients probably don't sleep that well. And in my opinion, what's number one to health? Getting a good night's sleep. If clients are not sleeping consistently, that is going to impact brain and body health. So behavioral sleep medicine would be another field of study that you'd want to really learn about. Exercise science, love the field of exercise science. It's a multidisciplinary field. We all know that exercise is good for folks. Exercise science is really that broad, broad field of study. Under that umbrella, you have all kinds of subdisciplines. But the more we can get clients moving, reducing sedentary behavior, that's good for their brain and body, including gut health. We all have learned about what is psychogastroentology. That's the focus of our podcast. We've had episodes dedicated to the gut brain access in this field of study. But hopefully, as this field evolves, more and more treatment providers, mental health programs, addiction treatment centers, people even working in the criminal justice system would start getting training in this field of study because this field of study is very, very clear. Gut health impacts brain health. Brain health impacts gut health. And the more we can understand this field of study, including the biopsychosocial model, I think it only opens up additional avenues for treatment and intervention for clients impacted by behavioral health and mental health conditions. So that's a very, very quick overview of just some basic fields of study that you would want to learn about that can really complement the biopsychosocial model. So part two today, what is the biopsychosocial model? It's a holistic framework. It really looks at all kinds of factors that can impact client health: biological factors, psychological, social factors, sleep health, nutrition, social isolation, trauma factors, cultural factors, and the list goes on. It's a very holistic framework. If we look at this through a biological factors lens, there's a multitude of biological factors that can impact client health and well-being. Blood sugar imbalances, gut dysbiosis, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. So a lot of biological factors can actually drive the bus with poor emotional and psychological health. Psychological factors, I think we all have a good understanding of what that is. Anxiety, stress, depression. These are some of the psychological factors obviously digging into. But just remember there are a number of biological factors that can exacerbate psychological factors as well, and vice versa. Social factors. Is your client dealing with social isolation, loneliness, poverty, homelessness, discrimination, marginalization? Do they struggle with friendship making abilities? These are all social factors that can impact psychological factors and biological factors. So again, it's a very integrative framework. The more we can look at a client through a biopsychosocial lens, we can really get to root causes that might be contributing to poor health outcomes in the clients you work with. There's multiple studies that have been published on the biopsychosocial model over the years, hundreds and hundreds. And there's many different kinds of models that fall under this umbrella. This is a really good article that looks at the use of the biopsychosocial model in conjunction with occupational therapy practice. And I just wanted to show you here, looking at these seven dimensions here. If you take a biopsychosocial lens, and if maybe you're in the occupational field, does your client have a long history of different kinds of injuries? What's their sociodemographic factors at play? What kind of biological, psychological, social factors could be at play here that may adversely impact rehabilitation outcomes? And you can take this article and these principles and apply it to any field of study. This here is just a good reminder why I think it's important to move in the direction of becoming biopsychosocial informed. Well, this article really sums it up. It really is a holistic approach to understanding human health. And what is a holistic approach? What is holistic health? Well, you're utilizing mind-body approaches, you're understanding the interconnectedness between what's going on in your client's brain and how that impacts their body, and vice versa. And there's all kinds of things to consider under this umbrella, which we'll talk about. If you're working in the mental health field, if you are working with clients who have a mental health diagnosis, there's empirical-based literature that supports the use of the biopsychosocial model to better understand the root causes and contributors for poor mental health. If you are working in addiction treatment, if you are working with clients with substance use disorders or substance use problems, there are also articles that really support the use of the biopsychosocial model. And if you can use this model in the treatment of addictive behaviors, it should lead to better outcomes. That was a very, very quick overview of the biopsychosocial model. Our next section today, how do you apply this to an intake screening and your interviewing processes? Well, visually here, if you see this, this is an example of a biopsychosocial assessment, looking at it through a bio biological lens. If you were to move in this direction, what would you want to do? Well, I think having an appreciation for what your client eats or the lack thereof would be a component of this. Really understanding if your client is living a sedentary lifestyle and they never, never get any physical activity. What are your client's sleep patterns like? Is your client dealing with any kind of unmanaged, untreated medical health conditions? If your client's dealing with irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, migraine, daytime fatigue, very, very important to understand those topics and many, many more. We all know the importance of really digging into your client's lifestyle and social history. This is a really good article that I frequently cite in other trainings I give. But if you're seeing this visually here, these are some different areas and avenues to explore with your client that really get into the weeds of kind of how your client lives their life from day to day. The more you can understand these topics, the better off we can do in identifying problematic areas that we can then target with intervention. If we look at this from an individual, a systems and a cultural and societal level from a screening lens, at the individual level, you would have appreciations for some of those biological factors, cognitive and emotional factors we've been talking about. At the systems level, really looking at family, peer, school, and neighborhood factors. And at the cultural and societal level, histories of poverty, racism, media, depictions of violence, looking at screen time exposure habits and things of that nature. The more we can dig into all these topics, we get a better understanding of all the drivers that may be contributing to poor client health outcomes. Here's a good article just to show you visually here, to really have an appreciation for a psychosocial medical history. Again, you're not diagnosing a medical health condition per se, unless maybe you're a doctor or nurse practitioner or someone that has those kind of credentials. But it's really, really important, I think, to really understand what your client eats, their sleep patterns, their gut health. The more you understand those topics, then we can have a greater appreciation as to why maybe they're dealing with these mental health conditions. There's a multitude of factors that can contribute to poor health outcomes. Environmental contamination. So maybe your client is exposed to a lot of air pollution. They live in a really old home. Maybe there's some lead exposure, having an appreciation for how poverty and homelessness impacts poor health. Maybe your client lives in a very unsafe housing environment. Is your client exposed to crime? Do they have lack of health insurance? These are all contributors to poor health outcomes. There's a multitude of factors as well that can adversely impact your client's emotional health. And if you see this slide here, this word cloud really sums it up. Look at all of these factors that can impact client emotional health: body pain, burnout, alexithymia, trauma, attachment problems, digestive health issues, loneliness, HPA access dysfunction, shame, overcommitting, blood sugar imbalances. This is why a biopsychosocial model is so important because it does capture most of these things that you see on this particular slide. There are also a multitude of factors that can impact your client's brain health. Another reason why we really want to have a biopsychosocial approach to understanding client health outcomes. If you look at this slide here, what are some drivers for poor brain health? Well, what your client needs could be a big factor. Poor dental health, hormonal dysfunction, chronic sleep issues, poor coping strategies, obesity, blood sugar imbalances, food insecurity, prolonged sedentary behaviors, excessive sugar or caffeine consumption, and the list goes on. The only way to really capture all these, in my opinion, through an intake or interview or screening process, is to really have an appreciation for the biopsychosocial model. One aspect that we really need to have an appreciation for that really takes into account the neuroscience aspects of maybe some of the things your client is dealing with is frontal lobes. A lot of clients who are in clinical or forensic settings are going to be dealing with some level of frontal lobe impairment, executive function limitations. This slide here is a good reminder why we need to learn about the frontal lobes. Here's eight major functions of the frontal lobes. If your client has frontal lobe impairment, which could be caused by a host of things, including brain injury histories, trauma histories, drug and alcohol use issues, your client may be dealing with limitations in many of these areas here. Many clinical and forensic populations are also going to be dealing with some level of self-regulation problems. From a biopsychosocial framework, having a deep appreciation for these variables here will only help you better understand what is going on with your clients and then help you develop a more targeted intervention that can help address these things. Because if your client goes through life dealing with a lot of self-regulation issues, they're likely going to have more problems in many areas of life, more impatient. They're going to be more impulsive. They're probably going to have more decision-making problems. They're probably going to engage in more problematic health behaviors and lifestyle habits. This here is response inhibition. This is our brain's parking break. This is a component of executive function. It's a component of self-regulation. Another big area to dig into with your clients. If your client has issues in response inhibition, this basically means your client's probably going to be a little more impulsive, a little more impatient, and they might have more difficulty in many of these areas that you see on this slide here. They could be more impulsive with their spending habits. They might have more of a problematic relationship with food, excessive sugar consumption, caffeine, alcohol problems in some cases, more erratic driving behaviors. They might have more excessive screen time exposure, more sleep issues, and the list goes on. When we're talking about frontal lobe impairment, executive function, response inhibition, it's imperative to also have an appreciation for metacognition. This is thinking about thinking and knowing about knowing. Metacognition is our ultimate executive function. When you have a client that has metacognitive deficits, here are eight red flag indicators that should alert you to the fact dig deeper, have an appreciation for metacognition, because if your client goes through life having poor metacognition, they're probably going to have more problems in school, in relationships with money management, and making poor life decisions. If your client has a long history of engaging in risk-taking behaviors, and here are seven variables to consider that would fall under this umbrella. Alcohol use, substance use problems are risk-taking behaviors, unhealthy weight control, engagement in violent behavior, poor communication patterns all through life, maybe malnutrition, physical activity patterns where someone lives a sedentary lifestyle. And if someone smokes cigarettes, that could be a variable in a lot of cases for poor risk-taking behavior. In some cases, your client may be engaged in problematic coping problems. That is another variable that you'd want to take into account. If your client has a long-standing pattern of poor coping strategies, that might be a red flag indicator. Your client's dealing with poor metacognition, response inhibition deficits, and this could be driven by a host of biopsychosocial factors. When we look at this through a biopsychosocial lens, too, I think it's imperative for clients to be screened for nervous system dysfunction because if you're working in clinical or forensic settings, many of your clients are also dealing with central nervous system dysfunction. There's a multitude of factors that can adversely impact your client's nervous system functioning. Chronic anxiety, sleep issues, depression, poor frustration tolerance, poor stress management, relationship conflict, trauma histories, and these are all things too that can impact the gut brain access. And it's important too from a biopsychosocial lens to also screen your clients for how they live their lifestyle. If they're living the modern way of living, these are some variables you'd want to be aware of. The more your client is living like this, these patterns of living are associated with poor brain and body and gut health, exposure to unhealthy diets, prolonged sedentary behaviors, irregular eating patterns, meal skipping, chronic stress, emotional eating patterns, things of that nature can absolutely impact your client's overall health and well-being. And when we're talking about this, we know that stress is alive and well. The more we can identify chronic stress patterns, having an appreciation for this and really understanding how chronic stress can really impact biological, psychological, and social health, we're really moving in that direction, becoming biopsychosocial informed. And chronic health problems, as you can see here, can really drive the bus with blood pressure issues, gut health problems, sleep issues, autoimmune problems, blood sugar imbalances, and sluggish digestion to name a few. From a biopsychosocial lens, I wanted to throw this in here. Look at all these factors that can adversely impact and get in the way of positive mental health recovery. The more you can understand this from that biopsychosocial lens, you'll be in a much better position to develop a more holistic intervention plan that can really take these things into account. And this slide here, too, just visually showing you how complicated these things are. This slide indicates a number of different factors that can contribute to poor rehabilitation. Anasygnosia at the top of the list. This is when your client truly doesn't recognize or believe they have a certain condition. Alexithymia, emotional blindness. Maybe it's a self-awareness deficit. Maybe it is a learning challenge, a memory issue, motivational deficits, chronic pain issues, sleep problems. These are all factors that can really get in the way of the rehabilitation process. And anasygnosia, huge topic to be aware of. Reach out if you have any questions on this. You're looking for some resources. I have many, many handouts, articles, links I can share with you. This is going to be more common if you're working with clients with neurodegenerative disorders, very serious mental health diagnoses, schizophrenia. Anasygnosia is when your client truly does not believe they have that condition. And the research says this is a driver for medication noncompliance and poor treatment outcomes. In some cases, too, your client may be dealing with poor perspective taking, another factor to take into account from a holistic screening lens. If your client has poor perspective taking, this slide here shows you red flag indicators that you would want to be on the lookout for that may indicate your client is truly dealing with poor perspective taking. Another piece of this puzzle, and again, Why a biopsychosocial lens is so important because there's so many puzzle pieces we need to be aware of. In some cases, you may have a client that struggles with low future orientation. These are 11 puzzle pieces that fall under this umbrella. Low future orientation would mean your client struggles with planning and thinking about the future. And this could be a red flag indicator for executive function impairment, poor decision making, abstract reasoning deficits. It could be some impulsive decision making. If your client struggles with this, they may really struggle with being patient and thinking about living in the moment as well. Alexithymia, another big driver for poor client health outcomes. Alexithymia is emotional blindness. Very, very common in clinical and forensic populations. I put a list of questions together for all of you. If you want to see this visually again, go check out our YouTube channel. These are potential red flag indicators that you may be working with a client who has alexithymia. Be on the lookout for this topic in one of our future episodes. We're going to talk about alexithymia. And there's actually interesting research that does show clients with alexithymia may actually have more problematic eating patterns. They may struggle with more poor health outcomes, including more poor mental health outcomes as well. Just wanted to show you visually here why we need a biopsychosocial framework for substance use treatment. This slide here indicates if you are working with clients with chronic substance use disorders, it's important to really screen for your client's pattern of consuming foods that fall under the umbrella of the Western diet, alter-processed food consumption, ruling out food insecurity, working with dietitians, nutritionists to rule out nutritional deficiencies, be aware that malnutrition can be a factor. Again, having a really good appreciation for the gut brain access and sleep issues as well. This slide here should remind us why it's so important to have a biopsychosocial framework. Here's a really nice model that is talked about in the biopsychosocial literature. It's called the Lifestyle Balance Model. This was specifically tailored for substance use dependency and recovery programs. This would be a good model to really develop an appreciation for. And we've talked about this in other trainings and other episodes we've done through our podcast program. But when you're looking at this through that biopsychosocial lens, a component of this is really going to have an appreciation for poor gut health in your client. If your client comes to you for mental health treatment, and if you're not digging into your client's gut health, you are missing a key component to the intervention process because poor gut health and poor mental health do frequently co-occur. Another big piece of this puzzle is blood sugar imbalances from that biopsychosocial lens. If we don't have an appreciation for blood sugar imbalances in our clients, we are also missing a piece of this puzzle because poor blood sugar imbalances are very common in clients. And if your client is dealing with blood sugar imbalances, it could be a triggering event for mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, certain food cravings, poor concentration, and the list goes on. Another piece of this big complicated puzzle is if your client is dealing with chronic low-grade dehydration. This is a great article published in 2025, if you can see it visually here. If your client is not getting the recommended amount of water every day and they're dealing with dehydration on some level, it could be a triggering event for higher levels of fatigue, confusion, anxiety, depression, tension, and irritability to name a few. We had an episode dedicated to this very topic. Please check it out if you feel like you want to go deeper in the weeds with this. But another big piece of this puzzle is the HPA access, the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal access. What I'll say about this is clinical populations, more times than not, have an HPA access that is not working properly. This is our brain's main stress response system. And there's a multitude of factors that can contribute to poor HPA access functioning. Stress, chronic pain, sleep issues, blood sugar imbalances, and the list goes on. Circadian rhythm misalignment, another big piece of this puzzle. A lot of clients may have circadian rhythm misalignment for a variety of reasons, including if clients stay up all night, watch TV. Maybe a client works a job in their shift work. People that don't have consistent sleep-wake cycles may have more disruptions in their circadian rhythm. Chronic circadian rhythm misalignment has been linked with more depression, anxiety, pain-related problems. It could be a triggering event for alcohol addiction and a number of physical health issues to name a few. Food insecurity, another big, big topic. If you're working with clinical and forensic populations, the rates of food insecurity are very high according to the peer-reviewed literature. Food insecurity is a type of trauma. It is associated with worsening mental health and physical health. And this slide here shows you all kinds of different reasons why we need to have an appreciation for food insecurity. This slide here really talks about how food insecurity over a longer period of time can contribute to increases in poor health outcomes, including increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, asthma, kidney disease, more mental health problems, it may increase the risk of COPD and cardiovascular disease, to name a few. Here are 10 questions I put together for all of you from a red flag screening question kind of lens that may indicate your client could be dealing with food insecurity. Definitely take this seriously. Combat this, make this a focal point of intervention because if your client is food insecure, it really is an adverse impact to brain and body health. So that was a quick overview, too, on screening, interviewing, and implementation considerations, our last section today, all about tips, strategies, solutions, and interventions. So anytime we're looking at developing an intervention plan, we need to be aware of the puzzle pieces involved in the critical steps toward long-term success. This slide here sums up some of the big variables. If your client has issues in these areas here, or some of these areas, it can really be a big barrier that gets in the way of your client's success. The more you can dig into these topics and target them with intervention, the better off we're going to be with helping your clients achieve his or her goals more effectively. The biopsychosocial approach really is a component too in the neurocounseling literature. Neural counseling is basically the infusion of neuroscience research into counseling practice. This slide here is a it's kind of an overwhelming slide, but it's intended to be that way. I encourage anybody that's working in the mental health arena or allied fields to have an appreciation for neural counseling because it really is a holistic approach. And I have found it very, very helpful. The more you can understand neuroscience research, you are also in a better position to interact and communicate with clients more effectively. What are some strategies to consider that can help improve client brain health? Well, here's ten strategies to consider. All common sense, eat healthier foods, get better sleep, get moving more, reduce sedentary behaviors, learn how to manage stress, promote optimism, enhance social health. When you study these topics, it's very, very important to also understand the field of therapeutic lifestyle changes. It's a very common sense approach. But when you study lifestyle changes, these are factors you would want to consider under this umbrella. Eight variables to take into account. Getting the clients moving more, stress management strategies, promoting positive recreation, promoting spiritual involvement when appropriate, enhancing relationships, diet and nutrition, working with nutritionists, dietitians, maybe helping your clients get out in nature more, or maybe getting your client connected to a volunteer job. I won't spend a lot of time on lifestyle medicine because we have a six-part series coming up on this, but I do believe that lifestyle medicine approaches pair very nicely with the biopsychosocial model. There's six core features of lifestyle medicine getting better sleep, promoting positive social health, exercise, eating healthy, stress management, and the avoidance of harmful chemicals. I love lifestyle medicine because it borrows and complements and uses research findings from the field of nutritional science, positive psychology, behavioral change, health and wellness coaching, exercise physiology, addiction medicine, and sleep medicine. Obviously, our podcast is about psychogastroentonology and the gut brain access. So this slide here is focused on looking at gastrointestinal health and the gut brain access. And these are potential targeted areas for intervention when we want to help improve client gut and brain health simultaneously. Targeting depression, reducing stress, helping clients get better sleep, learning about the HPA access, focusing on distorted thinking patterns, understanding poor coping skills. And this slide here really helps me understand why we need that biopsychosocial framework. A strengths-based approach can be helpful with any client. This slide here is a visual on some of the components of strengths-based coaching. The more we can encourage clients, empower them, and motivate them, these are critical components to long-term skills. So the biopsychosocial model and health coaching approaches do go hand in hand. I think too, whatever field of study you're in, getting some training and having an awareness about the field of health coaching, I think can be applied to any field of study, mental health, criminal justice system. This slide here visually shows us what are some of the key components associated with health coaching. Well, if you can see this here visually, health coaching approaches are patient-centered. You're really working with the client collaboratively and determining goals. You're working with the client on self-discovery, encouragement, providing psychoeducation, you're using motivational interviewing. This can these approaches can be helpful in any setting with any kind of client. And this slide here visually shows us if you look at this empirical-based literature, if you use health coaching approaches in conjunction with lifestyle medicine consistently with clients, it has been associated with helping clients improve self-regulation, self-awareness, motivation, confidence building, and the list goes on. For professionals who use health coaching consistently in the work they do, and it's an organization that's health coaching informed, the research indicates it may actually help enhance professional job satisfaction. It can help enhance multidisciplinary professional collaboration, and this is great for burnout, it's great for all kinds of things at the organizational level. Working with clients on enhancing their health literacy is an intervention, and it really does complement the biopsychosocial model. The more we can help clients enhance health literacy outcomes, your client is in a better position to understand health information, learning more effectively how to access appropriate health-related services. They're in a much better position to communicate with their health providers, which then hopefully can lead to better health outcomes. Exercise, again, we talked about that in the beginning, but a biopsychosocial intervention is exercise. Obviously, before implementing an exercise program, working with exercise physiologists, appropriate professionals, PT specialists, and things of that nature, making sure the client is okay to exercise. But the benefits associated with exercise are many and varied. And this slide here just shows us 10 of the main common benefits associated with routine engagement in exercise. Getting clients moving more is an intervention. There's a multitude of ways we can help clients get moving more and reducing sedentary behaviors. This slide here gives us five different ideas. Improving your client's social interactions, helping your clients engage in cognitively challenging tasks, helping your client get a job or a volunteer position, helping your client get connected to like a hobby or skills group. These are all things that can help promote an active lifestyle. I wanted to show this here too. I've given talks on walking, and for our podcast, we have an episode coming out on therapeutic walking. The more we can help clients engage in regular forms of walking if they're okay with that. That's good for their brain and body, and it's very good for promoting client positive neuroplasticity. Here's a case I consulted on a while ago. The client started to engage in regular walking, and it helped the client reduce fatigue. It helped calm their mind down, it helped them become more patient. It's a great thing. Walking is a really positive intervention that can really combat some of those biopsychosocial deficits we've been talking about today. Self-directed neuroplasticity, I wanted to also just show you here visually. If you're interested in the topic of neuroplasticity, please check out our episode that's coming out on that topic as well. But the more we can help clients engage in self-directed interventions that promote positive neuroplasticity, that's good for their brain and body. What does this mean? If you are starting to help clients engage in self-directed neuroplasticity, you're teaching clients how to have better self-reflection, positive thinking, engaging in positive health habits, you're teaching them healthy coping skills, self-compassion, and the list goes on. The more clients can do this consistently, this is good for their brain and their gut brain access. Getting clients out in nature more is a very positive biopsychosocial intervention. Clients who are out in green space and around water more and getting out of their houses more, it's good for their attention span. It's great for reducing stress. It can help reduce exposure to air pollution. It is a very good way to improve social connection. Here's another article and a visual that talks about what are the benefits associated with consistent green space exposure. Well, it's good for our brain health. It's good for our mental health. This is an intervention worth exploring. Promoting resilience in the clients we work with is very, very important. When we promote higher levels of resilience in the clients we work with, what are we doing? We're helping your clients develop an increased likelihood that they can cope and handle stress more effectively. Teaching clients how to regulate blood sugar imbalances, very, very important. This article here sums it up. Balancing blood sugar is the very first step we recommend for anyone looking to improve their health. This comes from a really good article published in 2023. Any field of study you're in, if you're working with clients with poor mental health, behavioral problems, addiction issues, learn about blood sugar imbalances and the strategies you can use to help clients regulate blood sugar issues. Very, very important. From a neuroscience lens, a neurocounseling lens, a gut brain access lens, this slide here talks about strategies that can help regulate your client's central nervous system. And these are all rooted in the biopsychosocial framework. Improve client gut health, sleep health, eat better, deep breathing, mindfulness, self-compassion, journaling. The list goes on. The more we can promote positive psychological well-being in the clients we serve, it's good for brain and body health. How do we do that? Well, we can promote positive self-esteem and self-image, help enhance client self-efficacy, promote client optimism, promote client happiness. This is not just good for client psychological health, but it's great for biological and social health as well. Self-compassion is an intervention. This slide here shows several studies that talk about the benefits of engagement and routine self-compassion. It may actually help clients quit smoking and eat better and regulate their emotions more effectively.