In this keynote address Dr. Siegel will introduce the field of interpersonal neurobiology, an approach to understanding how the brain and relationships help shape the mind. Using the lens of interpersonal neurobiology, he will then share his insights about how attachment patterns, temperament, and the brain all contribute to the development of personality.

Drawing on years of experience as both a practicing psychotherapist and a researcher, Dr. Siegel will discuss attachment theory, and how attachment styles affect people’s adaptive mechanisms. He will then reference the Enneagram and personality theory in general in exploring how attachment, temperament, and differences in neurobiological features can be looked at together in a deeper way. By describing and synthesizing these different aspects of psychology and neurobiology, he combines his knowledge of brain research, early attachment experience, a person’s innate tendencies and temperament, and personality type, to show how a person’s perceptual bias leads to the kind of long-term continuity that the personality in adulthood often reveals.

Finally, he will talk about good therapy, and how knowing and working with one’s personality can help one make sense of one’s life, which manifests as both increased neural integration and a greater sense of well-being.

Dan Siegel received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA, studying family interactions with an emphasis on how attachment experiences influence emotions, behavior, autobiographical memory and narrative.

Dr. Siegel’s psychotherapy practice includes children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. An award-winning educator, he formerly directed the training program in child psychiatry and the Infant and Preschool Service at UCLA. He is the recipient of the psychiatry department’s teaching award and several honorary fellowships. He is currently an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine where he is on the faculty of the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development. He is also the Director of the Center for Human Development, an educational organization that focuses on how the development of individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes.

Dr. Siegel is the co-editor of a handbook of psychiatry and the author of numerous articles, chapters, and the internationally acclaimed text, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience (1999). This book introduces the idea of interpersonal neurobiology and has been of interest to and utilized by a number of organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, the Council on Technology and the Individual, early intervention programs and a range of clinical and research departments worldwide. Dr. Siegel serves as the Founding Editor-in-Chief for the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. His book with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (2003) explores the application of this newly emerging view of the mind, the brain, and human relationships.

Dr. Siegel’s integrated and accessible developmental approach has led him to be invited to local, national and international organizations to address groups of educators, parents, public administrators, healthcare providers, policy-makers, clergy, and neuroscientists. The overall goal of these educational efforts is to provide a scientifically grounded view of human experience to a wide audience that can help facilitate the development of psychological well-being and emotional resilience across the lifespan.

He is currently collaborating with Jack Killen, Denise Daniels, David Daniels, and Laura Baker on a research project developing a framework for understanding how an inner perspective on personality and the Enneagram can be understood from a scientific point of view.