D.C.-area psychotherapist Dr. Helen McKibben has devised a highly pragmatic technique that uses neuroscience to help with personal growth, addictive behaviors and even falling asleep faster.

McKibben stresses throughout this thought-invoking guide the need to handle difficult situations by what she has styled as “dropping to the blank screen” of one’s consciousness --- allowing scope for one’s genuine feelings and goals to come to the surface. DROP draws from the experiences of those she has met through her profession, revealing her neuroscientific explorations as she plays various roles with her clients.

"McKibben...is a proponent of neuroscience, which allows her to impart to her clients and readers an interdisciplinary methodology that combines emotion, intellect, and personal desire and determination."

McKibben begins by showing different ways that children may be treated by their parents --- encouraging them as intelligent, talented equals, or denigrating them as inferior. One counselor/client encounter concerns a man who successfully graduated from college with many positives on his record, yet he still felt the sense of inferiority that had been engrained in his early life. In their meetings, McKibben plays the role of someone attempting to encourage or discourage him, and she has him play the role of his better, stronger self or to express the failure-laden aspect of his personality. By taking on these personas, he gradually becomes aware of her methodology, dropping mentally and emotionally to a blank, relaxed “place” as he overcomes his self-abnegating tendencies and rises to a firm state of strength and determination.

The situations covered in this manual include such ordinary yet potentially damaging ones as, for women, gaining the strength to refuse sexual advances; for men, trying to establish intimacy at a distance through various means of contact; and, for all, dealing with difficult personalities found in the workplace. In each scenario, readers will be encouraged to relax the body and open the mind. Once one learns to “drop” --- to speak and act from the blank screen --- one’s voice will become effective and persuasive, reflecting one’s deeper sense of conviction.

McKibben, a counselor and doctor of psychology, is a proponent of neuroscience, which allows her to impart to her clients and readers an interdisciplinary methodology that combines emotion, intellect, and personal desire and determination. Her deft staging of multiple roles in her consultation is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this work, revealing her as someone who understands and can convey the problematic situations that her clients must face. This, in turn, opens the way for them to assume roles that provide greater insight into their challenges.

This ability on McKibben’s part underpins the stance she hopes to inculcate in those who need her help and will give her written words broad scope, opening opportunities for discussion, contemplation and a fresh following.