The Brain On Psychotherapy

Neuroscience is teaching us much about how we are and how we learn. Psychotherapy can be understood as a process of learning new ways of relating to ourselves and to other people.

Those new ways of relating improve our quality of life and also improve our life circumstances often. Helping us make better decisions with our loved ones, colleagues and friends.

What happens in the therapy relationship needs to be transferable to relationships outside the 50 minute hour. How can we be sure that this is happening. Well now we have an increasing body of research from science showing how the brain (and therefore ourselves) changes.

This research indicates those elements of therapy which will lead to most lasting change:

Neuroplasticity. Large areas of the brain are not assigned. They can be coached into creating new networks or pathways. Essentially though habitual usage. Our brains evolved this way to ensure we remain adaptable to new environments. Our ability to adapt to our environment is one of our pre-eminent evolutionary features. Psychotherapy creates the ‘new environment’ for us to adapt to. As long as the therapist is skilled enough not to collude
Neurogenesis. The creation of new ‘undifferentiated’ brain cells occurs when we are faced with the new. Again psychotherapy can be used to tap into this evolutionary trait. As the cells are undifferentiated they can be used for whatever is needed in this new environment.
Focusing on the positive. Different areas of the brain process different emotions. Simply put focussing on positive emotions and relationships develops the higher functioning elements of our brains (personality, language, memory etc). The therapist can move the therapy in that direction to help with long term relief from depression, co-dependent negative relationships and so-on.

These are some of the process we engage with in the therapeutic relationship and more can be read in the link below.

For today say

I can make positive and relatively permeant change in me and my life.