Have you ever watched on TV, say, a match or a tennis game, or somebody in a dangerous situation? Do you remember that as you watched the difficult shot being taken ... that you could almost feel as if your leg was going to kick the ball, or feel your body move in an effort to strike the tennis-ball? Or in observing someone in the dangerous situation, you had the feeling that you were going to jump or run or some other feeling of tension?
Or the classic example from everyday life .. someone yawns - and you yawn.
These responses are caused by a system of nerve cells which we all have - called “mirror neurons”.
What is happening goes something like this:
Imagine you do a specific physical action, like, you pick up a spoon, certain parts of your brain are activated and involved in co-ordinating your arm and hand to carry out this action.
Then, the really amazing part of this story is that if someone else is watching you picking up the spoon, then the EXACT same parts of THEIR brain is also activated. As if, THEY were picking up the spoon.
It is like a system that operates between all human beings. Indeed, it seems to be a feature of many animals; it was first noticed in a laboratory chimp which was watching a scientist in the lab. The animal was being monitored for an unrelated set of tests - and brain activity showed up as the chimp watched the human eat an ice cream. Further tests brought the scientists (headed by Italian Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti at Univ. of Parma ) to the conclusion that there was a mirror system at work.
This effect is thought to be one of the means by which we learn how to do things - through observing others and getting a “feel” for how something is done, before we actually do it ourselves.
This is how children learn - by observing their parents. This aspect is really important, as it is a parents’ ACTIONS that trigger a child’s mirror neurons. So the child learns from what it sees around it, and learns HOW the parent functions in the world. And then the child copies that. It’s not a choice the child makes - it is hard wired, instinctual.
So - if a parent says one thing, but behaves in a different way, then that is quite confusing for a child. The mirror neurons are moving one way - but the verbal instruction is asking to move in a different direction. Could this be at the very root of much of our confusion?
So, to follow on from that, a lot of what happens in psychotherapy, between the client and the therapist is at this very basic mirror neuron level. The client sees the therapist's responses to what the client talks about, and instinctively knows whether he/she is being heard and affirmed.
When someone is responded to in a nurturing and nourishing way, new nerve circuits are laid down. Actual physical nerve circuits or neurons. The more stimulation of this nourishing kind a person receives, the more dense the nerve cell networks become.
Such changes, at such deep levels in our bodies can only happen at a particular rate. The speed of that rate varies depending on many aspects, including for example, life history and physical makeup. That is why lasting changes need a reasonable amount of time for them to fully take hold in a deep way at this nerve-cell level in the body. The research is showing that the brain is actually creating new nerve circuits - or "neural pathways". The use of functional MRI (fMRI) scans are confirming this as fact.
And this takes time. This, to me certainly, explains the reason why counselling and psychotherapy need to happen over months and years for deep-seated issues to be resolved and new healthier ways to be absorbed. The research is more and more indicating an "absorbing", organic process rather than one of definite, linear, sets of instructions which can be followed to then give rise to a definite outcome.
It is what we witness that makes the difference. Sets of instructions are valuable in their own right. However, for lasting change to occur requires time, consistency and constancy.
Refs:
Iacoboni, M., “Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others”, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY (2008).
Cozolino, L., "The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, 2nd edition, Healing the Social Brain", WW Norton & Company, New York. (2010)
Further Reading:
