Exclusive Dr Perry Walters Q&A session for TGG Members

To recap, the ASPIRE model for understanding the adolescent brain is:

• Autonomy: During this process the brain begins to remodel, increasing capabilities such as improvements in planning, decision-making and mentalising (gaining perspective on things).
• Self: Hormone-related brain changes trigger a heightened sense of self that allows adolescents to contemplate their own identity and place in the world and a sense of their own person.
• Purpose: Adolescents are beginning to find their place in the world and can increasingly grapple with ideas and causes beyond the self, such as justice, religion and political causes.
• Inquiry: Increased drives to take risks, explore, experiment and lean into uncertainty, in ways that get lost as we reach adulthood.
• Relationships: Fitting in and belonging to the group is a basic psychological need and adolescents are primed to notice and learn from peers and significant adults.
• Emotions: Early development of emotion circuits in the brain make adolescence a time of peak motivation, passion and drive. Professor Dan Siegel talks about an ‘emotional spark’, where passions are ‘on fire’, with an amplified intensity compared to other stages of the life span.

Zoom details:

• Topic: Dr Perry Walters: Using the ASPIRE model to understand the adolescent brain
• Time: February 6th, 2025 at 7pm London
• Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86056961866?pwd=paU8v81m2bwwFKaGXOINc2zQIawxmA.1
• Meeting ID: 860 5696 1866
• Passcode: 011722