The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain (Third Edition) (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

From the perspective of neuroscience, psychotherapy can be understood as a specific kind of enriched environment designed to enhance plasticity, the growth of neurons, and the integration of neural networks. The therapeutic environment is individually tailored to fit the symptoms and needs of each client so as to change the underlying neural systems that promote them.

Further, the clinical and neuroscientific research both support that neural plasticity, growth, and integration in psychotherapy are enhanced by:

1. The establishment of a safe and trusting relationship

2. Mild to moderate levels of stress

3. The activation of both emotion and cognition

4. The coconstruction of new and more adaptive personal narratives