Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life

Krista Tippett interviewed neuroscientist Richard Davidson in an episode entitled, “Investigating Healthy Minds” on one of my favorite public broadcasting programs, Being

On the program Davidson spoke with Tippett about how discoveries in neuroscience are demonstrating how we can change our brains in ways that can not only improve the quality of our experiences, but can also significantly improve the quality of our lives.

I encourage you to listen to the broadcast and will include here Davidson’s comments on psychotherapy copied from the broadcast transcript.

“Ms. Tippett: So, you know, I know that you’ve been honored by the American Psychological Association, and I wonder how does your work inform the work of psychotherapy? You know, are you learning things about actually changing the brain, about influencing the mind and influencing ourselves biologically with behaviors that might, I don’t know, circumvent, transcend, or somehow enrich the ways we already know to work with, who we are and how healthy we are and how we live?

Dr. Davidson: Well, you know, I’d like to believe that some of the work that we do may have some implications or relevance for kind of on-the-ground, in-the-trenches psychotherapy or related strategies for behavior change in several ways. One is a kind of meta-level which helps a client or patient understand that, based upon everything we know about the brain in neuroscience, that change is not only possible, but change is actually the rule rather than the exception. It’s really just a question of which influences we’re going to choose for our brain. But our brain is wittingly or unwittingly being continuously shaped. Another thing is the idea of practice. The classical model of Western psychotherapy which is, you know, a client coming to a therapist for an hour a week for a 50-minute session without doing daily practice in between just flies in the face of everything we know about the brain and plasticity.

Ms. Tippett: That’s really interesting, isn’t it?

Dr. Davidson: It is. So if we want to make real change, that’s not a good prescription for doing it. If we want to make real change, more systematic practice is necessary, in my view. This is something that comes directly from neuroscience. And I think that certain kinds of psychological therapies are now understanding that, so certain kinds of cognitive therapies, for example, do assign specific kinds of homework or practice for people to engage in on a daily basis. So I think there’s growing recognition of that.”

As a therapist, I’m acutely aware of the limitations of psychotherapy without practice, and the growing body of knowledge that supports these findings provides challenges and hope to therapists and clients alike. May we embrace them both.