Neuroscience-based psychotherapy: A position paper

Abstract

In the recent years, discoveries in neuroscience have greatly impacted upon the need to modify therapeutic practice starting from the evidence showing some cerebral mechanisms capable of coping with mental health crisis and traumatic events of the individual's life history by redesigning the narrative plot and the person's sense of the Self. The emerging dialogue between neuroscience and psychotherapy is increasingly intense and modern psychotherapy cannot ignore the heritage deriving from studies about neuropsychological modification of memory traces, neurobiology of attachment theory, cognitive mechanisms involved in psychopathology, neurophysiology of human empathy, neuroimaging evidence about psychotherapeutic treatment, and somatoform disorders connecting the brain and the body. In the present article, we critically examined sectorial literature and claimed that psychotherapy has to referred to a neuroscience-based approach in order to adopt the most tailored interventions for specific groups of patients or therapy settings. We also provided recommendations for care implementation in clinical practice and illustrated challenges of future research.

The Journey Within: Mental Navigation as a Novel Framework for Understanding Psychotherapeutic Transformation

“…One crucial area of contention revolves around understanding the specific mechanisms that contribute to effective treatment. While therapeutic interventions have shown associated changes in the brain [16][17][18][19], the precise neural pathways and mechanisms involved in bringing about therapeutic transformation are still under investigation. As Kazdin aptly stated, "After decades of psychotherapy research and thousands of studies, there is no evidence-based explanation of how or why even the most well-studied interventions produce change, that is, the mechanisms through which treatments operate."…”