Your Left Brain Says You're Fine. Your Right Brain Knows You're Not.

In this fascinating episode of In Conversation with Janina Fisher, Janina Fisher sits down with psychiatrist and neuroscientist Fredric Schiffer to explore a provocative question: can trauma be understood as a dialogue between two distinct “minds” within the same brain?

Drawing from decades of clinical work and neuroscience research, Schiffer shares how his pioneering “dual-brain psychology” emerged from split-brain studies and his observations that trauma survivors often seem to shift between profoundly different states of self. Together, he and Janina examine how one hemisphere may carry the emotional imprint of trauma while the other holds a more grounded, resilient perspective—offering a compelling framework for understanding internal conflict, fear, and healing.

Their conversation bridges neuroscience and psychotherapy, touching on the lasting effects of traumatic memory, why insight alone often cannot override fear, and how healing may happen when the healthier parts of the self can connect compassionately with the wounded parts. This episode offers a rich exploration of the brain’s adaptability and the deeply relational process of trauma recovery.

• Trauma can create sharply different self-states

• The two hemispheres of the brain may process emotional experience differently

• Healing is not just cognitive—it is experiential

• A healthier part of the self can support the traumatized part

• Neuroscience can validate lived experience.
  

Dr. Schiffer is an assistant professor of psychiatry, part-time, at Harvard Medical School and research associate at McLean Hospital. He has developed a theory of psychology that is the subject of his recent book Goodbye Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, & PTSD: The Life-Changing Science of Dual Brain Psychology. The theory has been studied extensively at Harvard and its clinical applications have been articulated in multiple peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Schiffer is also the Founder and CEO of MindLight, LLC which has received 2 SBIR grants from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse that were give an FDA Breakthrough Designation for the treatment of opioid addiction. He has a private practice of psychiatry in Newton, Massachusetts, USA

https://dualbrainpsychology.com/

Books:

Of Two Minds

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Minds-Revolutionary-Dual-Brain-Psychology-ebook/dp/B001PO6CMK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=211HASIEUKUKI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xV8hnS3a19gKRei-jFVGJsij5GooeoQMnr847BIMRGCj6DDirhPGo1B_Rp4M6JEPkUxU_edZMfoRYxjd8rXXVI1HRnvgRfTFc5EylUFxyC-vf5KnteegxS6T4Xn1-seSKtksvSw7Q85UZ8xCzRGN2g.lTn1SDp4auJQ9Zp_6aXZHyoG8ih8BTx40F6Yc__LWjk&dib_tag=se&keywords=frederic+Schiffer&qid=1778621398&sprefix=frederic+schiffer%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1

Good-Bye Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, and PTSD

https://dualbrainpsychology.com/good-bye-anxiety-depression-addiction-ptsd-the-life-changing-science-of-dual-brain-psychology

Dr. Schiffer’s Papers:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aJk1vEbT1cMpcGF1sBgftrIoNwwDNvLT