Nina Pyykkönen on Neuroscience and Psychotherapy

Nina Pyykkönen, a Specialist Clinical Psychologist and Individual and Group Psychotherapist, wrote a beautifully succinct article on neuroscience and psychotherapy, recently published in HS.fi and translated below.

In her article, Nina captures the essence of neuroscience in human development and why it matters in long-term, intensive psychotherapeutic treatment. The article is particularly pertinent in these days of very brief interventions and lifestyle hacks, many of which are perhaps useful but simply not enough when the need is for more intensive, longer-term treatment.

"MENTAL HEALTH treatment is currently the subject of heated debate. However, very little attention has been paid to the so-called hard science regarding what we actually treat when we treat a person in long and intensive psychotherapy.

There is a scientific consensus on how the human nervous system, mind and information processing ability develop. Our nervous system is a malleable organ that is always shaped to serve adaptation and survival in the prevailing circumstances as best as possible. New neural connections are created and strengthened throughout a person's life, but there are also special periods of sensitivity for development, such as early childhood, adolescence and becoming a parent.

When a person, for example, lives their early stages in an environment that is threatening, unpredictable, abusive or neglectful, their nervous system is shaped to function in a way that serves survival precisely in these circumstances. Constant alertness, rapid emotional interpretations, distortion of external reality, reactivity and action instead of thinking are characteristic features of nervous systems that have developed under such conditions. Not a disease, but necessary for survival.

When such a nervous system enters a safe environment later in life, it unfortunately does not immediately change. We call this state traumatisation: a person is biologically programmed to survive in a threatening environment, and they continue their trauma reaction even when there is no longer any reason to. This cannot be chosen, because it is a matter of biological neural connections, mental structures.

A traumatised person is very often left isolated or runs into conflicts in their relationships because they are constantly on the alert, make quick (mis)interpretations of other people and behave unpredictably. Not because of evil or illness, but because their nervous system is still trying by all means to ensure the continuity of life.

This is a situation where long-term psychotherapy can be life-saving. A psychotherapist is not a miracle worker, but in long-term, intensive psychotherapy, it is possible to create conditions for the reshaping of the traumatised nervous system that the ordinary everyday environment is often unable to support. The key elements are continuity, safety, predictability, and the mind of another person that can withstand and support the unbearable experiences of a traumatised person without becoming anxious or defensive.

Such repeated exposure to experiences of safety in a human relationship creates and strengthens new neural connections that support experiences of safety. The more connections there are, the more our regulatory system works, and the more we are able to think, even in the face of difficult emotions, instead of taking immediate action aimed at survival."

Nina Pyykkönen is a Specialist Clinical Psychologist, Licentiate in Psychology, Individual and Group Psychotherapist and Chair of Finnish Psychotherapists' Association (PSYry). More information about Nina can be found here.

The original text was translated with Nina's permission.