How Psychotherapy Changes the Brain

Abstract

People have long known that psychotherapy alters how people think and feel. But it is only more recently recognized that therapy also has measurable effects on the brain. From the interventions clinicians make with clients, brain activations and deactivations are changed, shifting the balance in structures, functions, and pathways. Each approach to psychotherapy offers different options for brain effects. Thus, by applying several different therapeutic methods, problems can be approached from more than one level. Combining different forms of therapy together may have a more powerful effect. In order to best utilize a variety of therapeutic methods, it is helpful to know what brain structures and functions are changed by each approach. This chapter shows how some frequently used forms of therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, behavior therapy, and dynamic therapy, elicit unique brain changes. Also included are hypnosis, yoga, and meditation because of their exceptionally powerful therapeutic effect on the brain. This chapter also shows how neuroscience provides evidence for psychologic theories. Each informs the other. They fit together. From the dialog between them, comes a rationale for better theories and effective treatments.