How Does Psychotherapy Work?
Make your brain a happier, healthier place to be.
At some point or another, every clinician has heard clients lament the fact that they cannot change. That may be an excellent time to let them know the findings of cutting-edge science.
Neuroplasticity is not only possible, it’s actually inevitable.
Every experience, sensation, and interaction with others or the environment changes the brain, even if to reinforce pre-existing networks. Since the human brain has approximately 86 billion neurons, each connecting to thousands of others, our capacity for brain change is enormous. Translation: your brain can change to become healthier and happier.
“Your brain can change to become healthier and happier.”
Our brains are designed to change throughout life. As mental health clinicians, our goal is to help clients make neuroplasticity (brain change) work for them by eliciting brain change using three approaches described by several brain scientists: bottom-up, top-down, and horizontal.
Get ready, here comes all that science-y stuff…
Bottom-Up approaches to brain change
Bottom-up techniques work through the body to change the brain, especially the lower, subcortical brain areas outside conscious awareness and conscious control. For instance, bottom-up strategies can de-activate the amygdala (fear centre) or regulate the insula (site of interoception).
Examples of bottom-up strategies include mindfulness, breathing exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga.
Top-Down approaches to brain change
In top-down techniques, the mind is engaged in changing the brain. In other words, the brain, especially the higher cortical areas, can be altered with thoughts. For example, top-down techniques can strengthen the prefrontal cortex (thinking centre) or the cingulate (emotion-regulation centre) so that they can communicate better with the amygdala (fear centre) during times of distress.
Examples of top-down techniques include cognitive restructuring, talk therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy techniques, and trauma-informed interventions.
Horizontal approaches to brain changes
Horizontal techniques change the brain through inter-hemispheric processing. Examples of horizontal interventions include expressive-art therapies and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).
I know, cool right?!
Integrating multiple approaches to brain changes
As a general rule, techniques and interventions that combine multiple approaches to brain change tend to be more efficient and result in a faster and more dramatic brain change. The reason is that when we utilize various methods to brain change at the same time, the brain is getting a ‘workout’ from multiple directions at once, the exercises tend to be challenging (which promotes more significant brain change), and several brain regions are impacted at once.
If you’d like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to ask us or come in for a session. Clearly, I’m pretty passionate about psychological theory, but I’m even more passionate about using it to help my patients.
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