2008/02/20 by Bruce Ecker, Brian Toomey · 5 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Memory and Neural Mechanisms #Stress Responses and Cortisol #Functional Brain Connectivity Studies #Psychology #Viewpoints #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Transformative learning #Neuroplasticity #Cognitive psychology #Unconscious mind #Psychotherapist #Cognitive science #Neuroscience #Developmental psychology
paper · doi:10.1080/10720530701853685
openalex publication_date 2008/02/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In this second of three articles, we suggest criteria defining the optimal use of neuroplasticity (synaptic change) in psychotherapy and provide a detailed examination of the use of neuroplasticity in coherence therapy. We delineate a model of how coherence therapy engages native mental processes that (a) efficiently reveal specific, symptom-generating, unconscious personal constructs in implicit emotional memory and then (b) selectively depotentiate these constructs, ending symptom production. Both the psychological and the neural operation of this methodology are described, particularly how it defines and follows the built-in rules of change of the brain–mind–body system. On neuroscientific grounds, we suggest a fundamental distinction between transformative change, which permanently eliminates symptom-generating constructs and neural circuits, and counteractive change, which creates new constructs and circuits that compete against the symptom-generating ones and is inherently susceptible to relapse. We propose that coherence therapy achieves transformative change through the reconsolidation of memory, a recently discovered form of neuroplasticity, and present evidence consistent with this hypothesis. Subjective attention emerges as a critical agent of change in both the phenomenological and neural viewpoints, profoundly connecting these two domains.