About The Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences

What is The Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences?

Dr. Suzanne Henwood spent nearly a decade working with, and co-creating developments in the field of mBraining, with Grant Soosalu. You can listen here to an interview sharing the original work from 2012 – which underpins some of the new materials.

Grant sadly passed in 2019 and Suzanne works now to ensure his legacy of development, research and currency lives on through her ongoing dedication to the wider field.

An exclusive interview with Grant Soosalu about mBraining

So what do we now know?

We have at least three brains/intelligences – yes the head, or cephalic brain you were already aware of, and the heart (cardiac) and gut (enteric) brains, which you were probably aware of intuitively, but may not have called them brains/intelligences in the past.

Have you ever heard yourself or anyone else refer to these brains, intelligences, or inner wisdom? It is amazing that once you know this, you will start to hear it everywhere, through language cues and you may even start using it deliberately to speak to your heart and gut. So what sort of language patterns might you notice?

Do you recognise that now? Amazing isn’t it – how we may not have picked up on it before.

Using the Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences Models to connect with and communicate to each centre we can work to bring coherence across the centres to connect with your own emergent wisdom.

In 2014 mBraining Master Coach was launched introducing two more intelligences: The ANS (Autonomic Nervous System) and the Pelvis. Dr Suzanne Henwood was the only person ever to be signed off to offer that course by its developer – Grant Soosalu.

In 2023, Dr Suzanne Henwood has taken the work even further and deeper and created The Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences (formerly known as mBraining 2.0), which extends the original model, weaving into it the research from the last 15 years to ensure the practices stay credible and at the cutting edge of what we know about the multiple intelligences and she applies it in an integrated, embodied and systemic way across a range of applications.

So what makes it a brain?

In the literature, a brain in this context is defined as a complex adaptive neural network, with a large number of neurons and interconnections between the neurons, plus support or glial cells. Not only that, each brain has its own memory and can adapt from within, without having to communicate with the head. So a ‘brain’ (or intelligence centre) in this context is far more complex than just a group of nerve cells that you find for example in your eye or ear.

Are we saying that each intelligence centre stands alone? No – of course not. The body is a complex, integrated systemic whole, and the level of autonomy of these specified brains is much greater than we thought it was. Ensuring the three (or indeed five) centres are integrated and in alignment (coherence) ensures a deep and authentic, healthy life style for yourself personally and for your relationships, work and business. What we are now showing, is that from a congruent and coherent state, your emergent wisdom can be accessed, giving an impact which is greater than the sum of the individual brains on their own. This enables us to help people to love themselves back to wholeness.

So how did this come into knowing?

Over the years, different scientists around the world have been studying individual components of the neurological system and reporting on those discrete findings. The advances in imaging technology has opened up a whole new world of what we can see and know within the human body and beyond it. The original work by Grant and Marvin, launched in 2012, brought that discrete and individual brain knowledge together and to ask the ‘So What?’ question. So what does it change knowing this? So what can I do differently now I know this? They took the findings and created a model which enabled us to communicate with, and align, those different centres and they went out and tested that in the field through action research, to see if the model worked – and it did.

And so much has changed since 2012. Now The Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences (formerly known as mBraining2.0) has gone deeper and broader taking the concept of coherence to a whole new level, incorporating the environment, spiritual and quantum elements into a brand new Coaching Framework.

Now this might be a challenge for some people. Believe me, working in health care (and particularly health care education) I have come across people who cannot see beyond what they already know, what they were taught when they learned anatomy in college. As if as humans we have never had huge shifts in our thinking and knowing – can you imagine we used to believe the world was flat. No! One day we will be saying – do you know they used to believe we only had one brain … in time …

What this new knowledge offers is a new model of what it means to be human: to be truly and authentically whole. By working with coherence across the intelligence centres we can access our own wisdom and reconnect with ourselves to step into a new way of being WHOLE. And that is truly exciting in this chaotic and uncertain world, where trust is sometimes questionable and complex situations are incomprehensible.

What I love about the Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences is that it is so beautifully complementary to what I already know. It does not require me to move away from techniques I already use in personal or leadership development or coaching – it enables me to add to them. Not only that it sits so comfortably alongside my own spiritual beliefs, enabling me to grow and evolve in all areas of my life.

One of the biggest impacts on me personally and what I have shared mostly with clients is the breathing techniques which allows you to bring yourself back to a balanced coherent state and to regulate your nervous system. In practice what this means is, it helps you to reduce stress and anxiety in minutes and in the moment of any difficult situation. It helps you to take back control of those difficult situations, giving you more choice about how you react, as well as ensuring your stress levels do not rise to unhealthy levels. I have had great results working with people experiencing chronic stress, who are reporting feeling more calm and sleeping better. It is only once you get back into a balanced coherent core state, that you can even begin to work on making real changes. Working with the Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences does that – bringing you back to a grounded centre of ‘you’ – giving you space to think and feel and make even wiser decisions so you can be truly YOU. And even more than that – it equips you to truly be the best possible version of you and to step out into the world confident in knowing you are more than enough.

The extended way that we teach people to use breathing to balance the autonomic nervous system is simple, gentle, safe and amazingly effective and can be individualised, avoiding a one model fits all approach. It is truly compassionate – modelling the very central nature of compassion which equips people to live fully in the world.

By understanding and listening to the multiple intelligences, people are better able to recognise where they are out of coherence. You know that feeling when you want to do something, but you can’t quite take the action required? Or where your heart says one thing and your head says another? Or you have made a decision – but it doesn’t ‘feel right’? Or you question whether you belong? That is your brains/intelligence centres letting you know they are not in coherence. And it is only once you achieve coherence that you will move forward positively.

You will find various articles about the early work around coaching to multiple intelligences in the literature – above and beyond the amazing mBraining book from 2012 by Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka. And do head over to my resource pages for up to date materials.

“… the heart also has its own nervous system. The verbal-thinking cerebrum has arrogated to itself the honor of being the only brain, falsely so. Actually it shares the distinction with the gut and the heart. … Thus we may speak of three brains, meant to function in concert, with the autonomic nervous system connecting them all.”

Gabor Mate – The Myth of Normal

What is The Neuroscience of Multiple Intelligences?

An exclusive interview with Grant Soosalu about mBraining

So what do we now know?

Language of the Head

Language of the Heart

Language of the Gut

So what makes it a brain?

So how did this come into knowing?

You will find various articles about the early work around coaching to multiple intelligences in the literature – above and beyond the amazing mBraining book from 2012 by Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka. And do head over to my resource pages for up to date materials.

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