Neuroscience Behind Resource Therapy

Resources exist physically in our brains as neural pathways

For those of you with a Resource State with a curious bent let me explain in technical terms. Our Resources can be equated to neural pathways and develop with neuroplasticity the ability to change and be rewired. Brain cells use neuro genesis, and there are two main ways this occurs.

1. During normal brain development when the immature brain first begins to process sensory information through adulthood (developmental plasticity and plasticity of learning and memory).
   

   

When we are born and in our toddler years our brain pretty much explodes in growth. As a neuron (think of this as a cell much like a tree matures it sends out many branches of axons (responsible for sending messages out) and dendrites (capable of receiving information) increasing the number of synaptic contacts and laying the specific synaptic connections – neuron to neuron.

Neurons have a membrane that is designed to send information to other cells. The axon and dendrites are specialized structures designed to transmit and receive information. The connections between cells are called synapses. Neurons release chemicals known as neurotransmitters into these synapses to communicate with other neurons.

An infant of three will have approximately 1500 synapses per neuron (Gopnick et al. 1999), whereas the adult brain has only 7,500 due to synaptic pruning, where unused connections are deleted.

2. As an adaptive mechanism to compensate for lost function and/or to maximize remaining functions in the event of brain injury.

It is our experiences, which determine which connections will be strengthened and which will be pruned. Those that are activated frequently will be preserved; neurons must have a purpose to survive. Those neurons without purpose die off through a process call apoptosis much the same way we prune our roses when they are not growing.

Thereby repeating behaviour over and over again our brains develop and connect in such a way that it will create a physical neural pathway. This is exactly how our Resource states are developed mostly in childhood. This is at the heart of Resource Therapy Theory of Personality.

With this knowledge we can effectively restore and reattach neural pathways. Working directly with the amgydala and our brains library the hippocampus.

The good news is we can rewire our brains with emotional processing therapies like Resource Therapy, Mindfulness, EMDR, EFT and Somatic Therapy.