Local psychologist Dr. Adrianne Ahern takes breakthrough ‘Snap out of it NOW!’ approach to national spotlight

By Matt Liebowitz, Rancho Santa Fe Review

In matters of psychological health and well-being, often it’s the simple solution that warrants the most focus. Such is the case with the Dr. Adrianne Ahern, whose groundbreaking approach to psychology—simple and deeply scientific at once—is gaining widespread, national attention.

Ahern, a clinical psychologist who lives and practices locally, is the author of two books, Snap Out of it NOW! (2007), and Back in Charge, which came out in June 2009. Both books outline Ahern’s techniques of how to “rewire” the brain, as she puts it, to break out of conditioned habits and thought patterns and use the brain’s intrinsic physiology to achieve personal and professional success.

On Saturday, Aug. 8, PBS stations around the country began airing a 90-minute “Pledge Break” program devoted entirely to Ahern’s “Snap Out of it NOW!” technique.

Attuned to the latest neuropsychological advances, Ahern’s techniques come from nearly 20 years of entrenched study, practice, and notoriety in the field of psychology.

Born in La Jolla, Ahern, at 16, graduated from high school in the Imperial Valley and went to UCLA, from which she graduated at age 20 with a degree in linguistics. With a professional dream of being an interpreter, Ahern, fluent in Spanish and French, moved to Europe, living in Paris and London.

Despite “racing through my early years,” it was a fascination with the brain and helping others—elements she’d soon intertwine to great success— that brought Ahern back to the U.S.

She enrolled in counseling psychology at the University of San Diego, and then transferred to the University of San Francisco, where she earned her master’s degree in clinical psychology. In 1994, Ahern earned a second master’s degree, and her doctorate degree in clinical psychology, from the California School of Professional Psychology, in Berkeley.

It was a post-doctoral fellowship at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla that helped Ahern lay the foundation that would soon guide her career. In 1995, Ahern helped design the Employee Assistance Program, a counseling program for hospital employees across Scripps’ six locations.

Since 2000, when she left Scripps to write Snap Out of it NOW! Ahern has been instructing patients in the book’s four-step technique, employing the latest neuropsychological advances to each client’s benefit.

Her “Snap Out of it NOW!” technique begins with the simple acknowledgment that you have been living life under false truths, and that these assumed truths have embedded themselves in your brain, to a negative effect.

“All my work deals with how to snap out of negative conditioning,” Ahern explained. Citing someone who fears they aren’t smart or determined enough to run their own business, an issue of particular importance in today’s current economic climate, Ahern said, “We have brain conditioning we may not be aware of. That thought has been repeated, and carved a neuropathway in the brain. We have to acknowledge that thought as a false truth that’s holding us back.”

“It sounds simple,” Ahern added, “but for many people it’s hard to imagine what they believe may actually not be true.”

Ahern’s approach deals with rewiring the deeply fixed but often incorrect circuitry of the brain that fosters feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.

“If you’re holding on the belief that you’re doomed to fail, your brain will support it.”

Following the acknowledgment of the false belief, the incorrect brain wiring, comes the second step, the need to clarify exactly what the false truth is, to experience it, and become attuned to the negative feelings and thoughts, both physically and emotionally, that arise in that internal psychological confrontation. These feelings often manifest themselves physically as panic, high blood pressure and heart rate, and anxiety.

“A hard-wired belief will infiltrate your entire system and physiology,” said Ahern. “You need to experience it before you can release it.” As she put it, “Face it or get chased by it.”

Releasing the unwanted but long-conditioned feelings and emotions is the third step in Ahern’s “Snap Out of it NOW!” process. How she advocates this release, through deep belly breaths, seems a simple solution, but one she stands strongly behind.

By allowing the body and mind to experience and breathe through negative emotions, she said, “We access the body’s relaxation response and cleanse thoughts and feelings from our brain.”

Now purged of the conditioned thoughts that have had a psychological hold, it is time in Ahern’s technique to insert a new belief. Ahern points to athletes, who often use visualization, a process of conditioning the brain’s physiology to achieve success.

“We can actually carve new neuropathways,” she said. Recognizing how the brain works, the “ingrained pathways” it forms, Ahern said, “We can actually use it for us.”

Receiving heaps of positive feedback on the “Snap Out of it NOW!” technique, Ahern is confident in her approach, and grateful for the chance to make a positive personal impact with her life’s work. “The most exciting thing is to help someone really turn it around,” she said. “That’s what I live for.”

Move Over, Dr. Phil: Reno self-help guru tells her TV audience to "snap out of it" (PDF format)