When patients learn new ideas, whether true or false, whether in the clinic or in the course daily life,concomitant alterations of the brain occur (see, e.g., LeDoux’s [2002], Synaptic Self). Every encounter with our environment causes a change within us and in our neural functioning. Moreover, education implies permanence. Once skills and ideas are truly learned and lodged in permanent storage, it is difficult if not impossible to unlearn them. Given the solution to a puzzle, taught the secret of cracking a safe, or having developed the skill of riding a bicycle, one cannot unlearn that knowledge. Neuronal decay and lesions can, of course, undo memory and occur to a certain extent in aging and, catastrophically, in strokes, illness, or violent accidents. The task of the therapist in most cases is to help the patient fashion alternative and future memories, supported by newly learned motivational schemas.
Klanus Grawe(2007), in his important book Neuropsychotherapy: How the Neurosciences Inform Effective
pasychotherapy, noted that “Psychotherapy, as far as it leads to substantial
behavior " change, appears to achieve its effect through changes in gene expression
at the neuronal level” (Kandel, 1996, p. 711). Further embedding
patients in their dysfunctional past by prodding them to ruminate about that
past does not erase their painful memories nor their penchant for dwelling on
these memories. Nor does it teach them more adaptive patterns of behavior.
Therapists teach patients how to avoid dysfunctional, harmful behavioral routines
and maladaptive habits. Effective therapists also help their clients develop
alternative skills (social, interpersonal, self disciplinary, and technical)
that will advance their well-being and that of others with whom they interact.
The neuroscience has demonstrated that neuronalrestructuring, which occurs in
all learning processes, enables the adaptive changes in affect, behavior, and
mentation that are the core objectives of psychotherapy (cf, Dumont, 2009;2010).
A neurological perspective on psychotherapy does not exclude attention to changing clients’
environment or introducing constructive environmental stimuli into their lives‘
On the contrary, even minor novelties in clients.‘ lifestyle can have enormous
con~ sequences in the way they perceive and experience themselves. We now know
that effective therapists and their clients can optimize desirable outcomes by
epigenetically triggering the expression of immediate-early genes (IFGs)
through exposure to nurturant social events ( 2006). (Epigenetics refers to the
expression of certain genes that results from their activation by specific but common
environmental events.) Culture generally and one's immediate family
specifically function as genetic enablers. Such epigenetic effects can operate
for better or for worse, depending on the quality of the experiences. In brief,
it is the complex bio-cultural matrix of the organic and the environmental that
co-construct our way of being and our potential for growth .