Integrating Neuroscience into Counselling Psychology

Integrating Neuroscience into Counselling Psychology

July 2021

Outline Reflections

Dr David Goss

What We Will Cover

1. Introduction

2. Current integration of neuroscience and counselling (psychology)

3. Examples of using neuroscience to inform counselling (psychology)

4. Benefits and challenges of integration

5. Current reflections on neuro in counselling psychology

6. Questions

A bit about me…

• Counselling Psychologist, CPsychol and HCPC

• Previously counselling service lead for The Brain Charity

• Work in Private Practice & NHS

• Worked as a Lecturer in Psychology & Counselling

• The importance of incorporating neuroscientific knowledge into counselling psychology: An introduction to affective neuroscience (Goss, 2015).

• Integrating neuroscience into counseling psychology: A systematic review of current literature (Goss, 2016).

• Working with neuroscience and neuropsychology (Goss, 2017).

• Integrating Neuroscience Into Counselling Psychology: Exploring the Views and Experiences of UK Based Counselling Psychologists (Goss & Parnell, 2017).

Publications

Is it useful for neuroscience to be integrated and utilised by Counselling Psychologists

Definitely not For sureI’ll perch on the fence

for now

Schools of integration in counselling (psychology)

Neuropsychotherapy (Cozolino, 2010; Grawe , 2007)


Interpersonal Neurobiology (Siegel, 2011)


Neuropsychoanlaysis (Panksepp & Solms, 2011)

Informing psychotherapy with neuroscience

Neural evidence of empathy (Gallese, Fadiga, Fogassi, & Rizzolatti, 1996; Gallese, 2001) supports the core condition of person centred counselling – and importance of personal development.

Person Centred Counselling – the relationship & PD


Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – psychoeducation and rationale

Facilitation of the brain’s opioid systems has been shown to alleviate many forms of severe depression

(Bodkin, Zornberg, Lukas, & Cole, 1995 )

Dopamine has been shown to play an active role in motivation and drive (Panksepp, 2011a/b )


Psychodynamic phenomena such as

• repression (Bazan and Snodgrass, 2012)• dreaming (Zellner, 2013)• dynamic unconscious (Berlin, 2011; Solms and Zellner, 2012)

have been supported by neuroscience

Psychodynamic psychotherapy – supporting theory

The benefits of integration

• The ever changing brain – neuroplasticity and epigenesis

• Neuroimaging use for psychotherapy (Karlsson, 2011)

• Neuroscience research developments for psychological theory• ERP’s (Pinheiro et al., 2013)• tDCS (Leite, Carvalho, Fregni, Boggio, & Gonçalves, 2013)• GSR (Oliveira-Silva & Gonçalves, 2011)

The challenges to integration

• Brain and mind

• Reductionism: Losing the self through pathology (Fuchs, 2004)

• Lack of neuroscience training for practitioners and balancing its use (ethics of competence) (Ivey, D’Andrea, & Ivey, 2012)

• The seductive allure of neuroimaging (McCabe & Castel, 2008; Ali, Lifshitz, & Raz, 2014)

Integrating Neuroscience Into Counselling Psychology: Exploring the Views and Experiences of UK Based Counselling Psychologists (Goss & Parnell, 2017).

What about counselling psychology?

Why look at counselling psychology and neuroscience?

• Unique philosophical underpinnings of science and reflexivity

• Well placed to uniquely integrate with neuroscience, helping develop new and novel ways to further understand and support our species’ mental health

• However, there is a shortage of literature on the subject

What about counselling psychology?

Why look at the UK?

Systematic review (Goss, 2016) – 21 papers found CP & neuro

• Majority of literature is from USA (including 1992 special edition)

• Goss (2015), Rizq (2007) and Fairfax (2009) main papers from UK

As such...

Do UK CP’s actually want to integrate...what experiences have led to these views?

Findings

6 Key themes

The Dangers of Neuroscience

Defining neuroscience

There are ways that neuroscience helps us

Methods of learning and the need for training

Integration: The opposition and the need - finding the balance

My practitioner identity

Findings

Master theme 1 – The dangers of neuroscience

Sub-Themes

A risk to therapy

Could we lose our CP values?

Removing bio-fixated client's agency

Reductionism

Overusing neuroscience

Risk of half-complete knowledge

Findings

Master theme 3 – There are ways that neuroscience can helps us

Sub-Themes

Empowering clients and developing rapport

Helping us understand the individual more

Rationale for interventions: to colleagues and clients

Developing us as scientist-practitioner psychologists

A language to unite and support us in MDTs

Findings

Master theme 5 – Integration: The opposition and the need - finding the balance

Sub-Themes

Lack of integration thus far…fear of losing identity?

Too much counselling, not enough psychology

Overall, neuroscience is good for counselling psychology

It is all about integration, that is what we do

We integrate neuroscience, but according to the client

Social Impact

• Neuroscience can be used in various contexts, including those which focus on subjective, individual, and societal experiences.

• Social Justice supported by neuroscience (Ivey & Zalaquett, 2011)

• Role of the environment in gene expression and brain development (epigenetics) could support social justice orientated counselling psychologists in confronting the effects of poverty, neglect, racism and discrimination on attachment and mental health (Simon-Dack and Marmarosh, 2014)

Thesis Conclusions

• Participants (CPs) are currently integrating neuroscience into their work and generally wish to do it more.

• More should be done within the discipline to help move this forward

• Review doctoral and CPD curricula

• One part of holistic model

• Resistance due to protection of identity?

• By increasing the discussion of neuroscience across the discipline, continually increase an understanding of the fore-structure and historicality of counselling psychology’s evolving identity.

That’s where I left it for a while…

Recent Publications

Use of Neuroimaging Methodology in Counselling Psychology Research: Promises, Pitfalls, and Recommendations. (Coutinho et al., 2017).

Goss, D. (2017). Working with neuroscience and neuropsychology (Sage Handbook chapter)

Using event related potentials to explore processes of change in counselingpsychology (Matsen et al., 2020) Understanding ER through ERP to help with early termination

Neuropsychotherapy as an integrative framework in counselling psychology: The example of trauma (Ward et al., 2017).

Cognitive Psychodynamics as an Integrative Framework in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy (Ward & Plagnol, in press).

QICN Access – starting to change

https://www.bps.org.uk/qualifications/clinical-neuropsychology

+ counselling psychology

https://www.bps.org.uk/qualifications/clinical-neuropsychology

In the same way that as counselling psychologists and therapists we maypromote and celebrate the psychiatrist who is open to acknowledging therole of subjectivity and individuality in a person…

…could CPs acknowledge and embrace the role of biology in the make-up ofa person?

Biology and the brain a part of the holistic world of being a person?

Final Reflection…

Thanks for listening

Any Questions?

[email protected]

References

Ali, S. S., Lifshitz, M., & Raz, A. (2014). Empirical neuroenchantment: fromreading minds to thinking critically. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8,357. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00357

Bazan A., & Snodgrass M. (2012). On unconscious inhibition: instantiatingrepression in the brain. In A. Fotopoulou, D. Pfaff, & M. A. Conway (Eds.),From the couch to the lab: Trends in psychodynamic neuroscience (pp. 307-337). New York: Oxford University Press.

Berlin, H. A. (2011). The neural basis of the dynamic unconscious.Neuropsychoanalysis 13, 5–31. doi:10.1080/15294145.2011.10773654

Bodkin, J. A., Zornberg, G. L., Lukas, S. E., & Cole, J. O. (1995). Buprenorphinetreatment of refractory depression. Journal of clinical psychopharmacology,15, 49-57.

Coutinho, J. F., Perrone-McGovern, K., Gonçalves, O, F. (2017). The Use ofNeuroimaging Methodology in Counselling Psychology Research: Promises,Pitfalls, and Recommendations. Canadian Journal of Counselling andPsychotherapy, 4, 327-348.

Cozolino, L. (2010). The neuroscience of psychotherapy: Healing the socialbrain (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.

Fairfax, H. (2017). Incorporating a neuropsychological perspective intopractice: A practical guide. Counselling Psychology Review, 32(4), 29-38.

References

Fuchs, T. (2004). Neurobiology and psychotherapy: An emerging dialogue.Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 17, 479–485.

Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition inthe premotor cortex. Brain, 119(2), 593–609. doi:10.1093/brain/119.2.593

Gallese, V. (2001). The ‘shared manifold’ hypothesis: From mirror neurons toempathy. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 33–50.

Goss, D. (2015). The importance of incorporating neuroscientific knowledge into counselling psychology: An introduction to affective neuroscience. Counselling Psychology Review, 30, 52-63.

Goss, D. (2016). Integrating neuroscience into counseling psychology: A systematic review of current literature. The Counseling Psycholgist, 44, 895920.

Goss, D., & Parnell, T. A. (2017). Integrating Neuroscience Into Counselling Psychology: Exploring the Views and Experiences of UK Based Counselling Psychologists. Counselling Psychology Review, 32(4), 4-17.

Goss, D. (2017). Working with neuroscience and neuropsychology. In C.Feltham, T. Hanley, & L. A. Winter (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy (4th ed., pp. 562-566). London: Sage.

References

Grawe, K. (2007). Neuropsychotherapy: How the neurosciences informeffective psychotherapy. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Ivey, A. E., & Zalaquett, C. P. (2011). Neuroscience and counseling: Centralissue for social justice leaders. Journal for Social Action in Counseling andPsychology, 3, 103-116.

Karlsson, H. (2011, August 11). How psychotherapy changes the brain.Retrieved from http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/psychotherapy/howpsychotherapy-changes-brain

Leite, J., Carvalho, S., Fregni, F., Boggio, P. S., & Gonçalves, O. F. (2013). Theeffects of cross hemispheric dorsolateral prefrontal cortex transcranialdirect current stimulation (tDCS) on task switching. Brain Stimulation, 6,660–667. doi:10.1016/j.brs.2012.10.006

Matsen, J., Perrone-McGovern, K., & Marmarosh, C. (2020). Using eventrelated potentials to explore processes of change in counseling psychology.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67, 500–508.

McCabe, D. P., & Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing is believing: The effect of brainimages on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition. 107, 343–52.

Neuropsychotherapist. (n.d.) About. Retrieved January 13, 2015, fromhttp://www.neuropsychotherapist.com/

References

Oliveira-Silva, P., & Gonçalves, Ó. F. (2011). Responding empathically: Aquestion of heart, not a question of skin. Applied Psychophysiology andBiofeedback, 36, 201–207. doi:10.1007/s10484-011-9161-2

Panksepp, J. (2011a). Cross-species affective neuroscience decoding of theprimal affective experiences of humans and related animals. Plos ONE, 6(9), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021236

Panksepp, J. (2011b). The basic emotional circuits of mammalian brains. Doanimals have affective lives? Neurosciences & Biobehavioural Reviews, 35,1791-1804. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.08.003

Panksepp, J., & Biven, L. (2012). The archaeology of mind: Neuroevolutionaryorigins of human emotions. New York: W. W. Norton.

Panksepp, J., & Solms, M. (2011). What is neuropsychoanalysis? Clinicallyrelevant studies of the minded brain. Trends In Cognitive Science, 16, 6-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.11.005

Pinheiro, A. P., del Re, E., Nestor, P., McCarley, R. W., Gonçalves, O. F., &Niznikiewicz, M. (2013). Interactions between mood and the structure ofsemantic memory: Event related potentials evidence. Social Cognitive &Affective Neuroscience, 8, 579–594. doi:10.1093/scan/nss035

References

Siegel, D. (2011). Mindsight: Transforming your brain with the new science ofkindness. London: One World Publications.

Simon-Dack, S. L. & Marmarosh, C. L. (2014). Neurosciences and adult healthbehaviors: Recent findings and implications for counseling psychology.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61(4), 528-533. doi:10.1037/cou0000020

Solms, M., & Zellner, M. R. (2012). The freudian unconscious today. In A.Fotopoulou, D. Pfaff, & M. A. Conway (Eds.), From the couch to the lab: Trends in psychodynamic neuroscience (pp. 209-218). New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

Ward, T., Delrue, N., & Plagnol, A. (2017). Neuropsychotherapy as anintegrative framework in counselling psychology: The example oftrauma. Counselling Psychology Review, 32(4), 18–28.

Ward, T., & Plagnol, A. (in press). Cognitive Psychodynamics as anIntegrative Framework in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy.Palgrave MacMillan: London. Available from https://uwerepository.worktribe.com/output/850406

Zellner, M. R. (2013). Dreaming and the default mode network: somepsychoanalytic notes. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 49, 226–232.doi:10.1080/00107530.2013.10746548

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Integrating Neuroscience into Counselling Psychology