Dr. Nan

Blog

The Emotional Brain in the Time of Collective Crisis: Rebalancing core emotions to relieve stress and heal collective trauma

Mar 3, 2026

The Emotional Brain: A Canary in the Coal Mine When I first began writing about the emotional brain for my book, Why Good Sex Matters, I approached it through the lens of sexuality because sex, desire, and pleasure are vivid reflections of our inner emotional life....

Neuroscience Hacks: The Healing Power of Pleasure

Feb 1, 2023

Much of our understanding of what enables us to experience pleasure counterintuitively comes from the more abundant research into pain.
When we investigate the brain correlates of pleasure more closely, we discover that the pathways for pleasure and pain are closely intertwined.
When we avoid pain, we are also learning to avoid pleasure. We shut down emotionally as well as physically.