Amy Banks, M.D. discusses the C.A.R.E. program, an innovative approach to help people form healthy, thriving connections—ones that really “click”—by healing some of the neurological damage that results from disconnection and strengthening the four neural pathways that make great relationships possible. Banks, the developer of the C.A.R.E. program and author with Leigh Ann Hirschman of the forthcoming book, Four Ways to Click: Brain Science and the Strong Relationship, shares background and discusses how the neural pathways—for Calmness, Acceptedness, emotional Resonance, and Energy—along with Relational Cultural Theory, and neuroplasticity (brain change), can help individuals assess their relationships, measure their C.A.R.E. scores, and work toward healthier, happier relationships.

Banks is Director of Advanced Training at the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI) at Wellesley Centers for Women. She has devoted her career to understanding the neurobiology of relationships. In addition to her work at JBMTI, she was an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is the first person to bring relational-cultural theory together with neuroscience and is the foremost expert in the combined field. Banks is the creator of the C.A.R.E. Program, an easy to use, practical guide that helps clinicians and laypeople assess the quality of their relationships and strengthen their neural pathways for connection. She also has a private practice in Lexington, MA, that specializes in relational psychopharmacology and therapy for people who suffer from chronic disconnection.

© Copyright 2014 Wellesley Centers for Women www.wcwonline.org