Marcelo Ceberio: “It Is Possible To Achieve Neuroplasticity With Therapy “

In an interview, Marcelo Ceberio talked about a very interesting topic: Neuroplasticity and its relationship to psychotherapy, more specifically how to achieve neuroplasticity with therapy.

Marcelo Ceberio is one of the most outstanding divr in the field of psychology. He has written numerous works, scientific articles and more than 25 books such as Heaven Can Wait , Superheroes also goes into therapy and Cinderella and the Ugly Ducklings .

If there is one thing that this Argentine therapist is known for, it is the fact that he is one of the greatest representatives of the systemic approach. Marcelo Ceberio studied this model at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. In fact, this is where he currently works as a professor and researcher.

Marcelo Ceberio: Neuroplasticity with therapy

Our brain is still a mystery. This organ weighs a little more than three kilograms and contains sophisticated neuronal compounds. Some people may not be aware of this, but everything we do or believe is capable of changing it. This is something called neuroplasticity.

It refers to the ability of the brain to change both its physical structure or functional organization based on our behavior.

This fact was not recognized until recently. In fact, some believed that when humans reached a certain age, it was impossible for their brain to create new neural networks. However, important divrs such as Dr. Álvaro Pascual Leone right now understanding these mechanisms to cause changes in patients.

Meanwhile , Marcelo Ceberio reveals how the therapeutic process itself favors neuroplasticity in any kind of psychological approach. That said, this is a hopeful tool that can enable us to reconstruct meanings and create new thought patterns that can promote the client’s well-being.

Marcelo Ceberio explained to us how to achieve neuroplasticity with therapy in this interesting interview.

Question 1: Marcelo Ceberio, what is neuroplasticity?

Think that not so long ago people thought it was impossible to create new neural networks! Today we know that until our last moment on earth, we will continue to create network after network after network after even more networks! Neuroplastic networks involve a chain of partner neurons that enhance each other.

It is like a neuron-domino effect where the nerve cells function in chains that work together. If the environment is prone to change, we need behavioral plasticity to be able to adapt to ourselves. In addition, we also need a neuronal movement that produces a network response that involves emotions, reflections, and actions.

This plasticity is a property of biological systems that allows them to adapt to changes in the environment so that they can survive. Therefore, learning processes and memory are events that promote flexibility; and the more plastic the nervous system is, the greater the learning capacity of the organism.

At this point, we must remember that Darwinist basic emotions (joy, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger) have made adaptation and survival possible in different situations.

Question 2: How can we achieve neuroplasticity?

Part of the human communication process is shaped through a series of actions, feedback and interactions that produce several constructions full of different meanings. However, these meanings also produce said circuits, so it is basically an endless system running in ring over and over again.

Nevertheless, when actions (including speech) are put into context, they immediately produce codings depending on the interlocutor. Therefore, answers arise in a conversation as a product of personal attribution constructions.

Everything (and by that I refer to topics, situations and objects) we experience is part of a category. Now categories are cognitive boxes that carry particular semantics. These categories group things into separate classes; and at the same time, one category can be part of another category and integrate multiple categories.

For example, a chair falls into the furniture category, but at the same time, a chair can be part of a category that brings together different styles.

We perceive the differences. In other words, we focus or remain aware of certain things that affect us. Now many of these things are included in categories that are part of a network with one or more meanings. In this sense, categorical networks have their counterparts in neuroplastic networks.

Preservation in actions developed under the same constructions of meaning, habits of performing actions under the same schemas, failed attempts at solutions, but which the individual continues to apply despite achieving an undesirable result, all show the same path to neural network.

Once the network is maintained, it is systematized, and that is where we fall into a feeling that goes against doing different actions, perceptions or feelings – it is a kind of apathy. Basically, it’s the way instead of the creativity.

Speaking of roads, for example, I am a marathon runner. I see how many people train in famous places such as parks, streets, paths, etc. There are only a few who dare to try alternative routes. Most of them usually continue on the preconceived routes. An exercise to stimulate neuroplasticity would be something as simple as running around the traditional paths.

Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, go backwards or look for alternative solutions to what you would normally do – these are some of the training methods that help build different paths in our network, both neural and in categories.

Question 3: Is it possible to work on neuroplasticity with therapy?

Neural networks are always used in therapy. When a client talks about their problems, their talk about the description of the sequence of events shows a neuroplastic chain.

The meanings, the way they process information, the way they move, these are all examples of a neural network. Remember, I pointed out that if the world is built up through categories full of semantics, this network of cognitive categories has its neurobiological counterpart in the neuronal chain.

I see therapy or rather the therapeutic process in any approach as a major act of meaning restructuring, whatever path is used to intervene; both the pragmatic (task instruction) or emotional (psychodrama, use of the body) as well as the cognitive (positive connotation).

Changing categories and restructuring meaning is the product of putting together a new neuroplastic network. This refers to a neuronal sequence that constructs an alternative pathway to the one that was already developed.

In other words, it breaks with the neuronal systematization, the network that carried out the production of grief, anger, and anxiety. The neural chain shapes how information is received and processed.

Due to the fact that we are all neuroplastic, we are able to create opportunity for change through words and non-verbal language. Strategically, therapists intervene to facilitate the building of other networks.

Question 4: Are all the situations or problems that clients have susceptible to working on neuroplasticity with therapy?

Yes of course. As I mentioned in the previous question, all human problems involve the construction of neuroplastic chains. In therapy, we deconstruct them by creating new categories and alternative networks to the traditional ones.

It may sound very simple, but it is actually a very complex process, a kind of coexistence between art and science. I recently dictated several classes on systemic epistemology.

Our actions and the way we emotionally or cognitively process information create networks in an automatic way. In other words, it is a lazy network. It is this that leads us to more of the same and to always use the same mechanisms, even if we get the opposite result.

Prejudices, mandates and rituals are part of the rigid armament of neural networks that hinder the construction of alternative networks. But that’s what therapists do…

Question 4.1: Can you give us an example of changing neuroplasticity with therapy?

I always remember a Jewish couple with four children who came to ask me why their eldest daughter converted to Christianity. These parents did not understand why their daughter would not let her two children see their cousin.

I continued to examine the four children. The elder had married a religious Jew, and the whole family confirmed the most extreme rituals. The second child was a Jew who affirmed the religion just like his parents; he was flexible about it, had the Sabbath from time to time and went to synagogue.

The youngest two were atheists and had Catholic partners. One of them had a son and because of religion, his religious cousins ​​could not keep in touch.

The parents felt unhappy because some of the couples decided not to go to family events. They could not understand the attitude of their daughter and son-in-law. How can devotion and religious ties be stronger than their blood ties? They felt incredibly guilty about their upbringing and wondered what they had done wrong.

They had to learn a lot about religion to understand how strong this fixation can be. But first and foremost, the main intervention was a restructuring of their guilt. Among other things, I made sure to clarify that they were good parents. They were loving and concerned for the welfare of their children, so much so that it led them to therapy.

Question 4.2: The solution

I strongly reaffirmed that they had made these children grow up with freedom of choice at all levels: ideological, social, political and religious. These parents never forced them to follow a particular model. On the contrary, they had all the freedom in the world to choose what they believed in.

What happened to them is a direct consequence of raising children with so much freedom. It is important to note that this risk must be expected.

However, if parents want nothing more than freedom of choice for their children, the risk is more than welcome. Therefore, I congratulated them because they had been loving and responsible parents.

They walked, confused, but innocent. In the ensuing session, they looked happier and began arranging parties and family gatherings. The reclassification process caused a change of categories in the same events.

As a consequence, other actions were developed accordingly. It is a neuroplastic change: the change of category involves the performance of another synaptic chain.

Question 5: Was this change in therapy related to neuroplasty in any way? How?

Of course. When the intervention is appropriate for the client, it creates the opportunity to change meanings and an alternative network to the inertial and systematized.

The pattern, style and way in which the intervention is handled are all instrumental. It is more the effect of the therapy than the content that allows the building of a new category.

Discovering the pathways that the patient uses the most (if they are visual, tactile, auditory, etc.) allows the therapist to speak the client’s language and provides the most effective introduction to the intervention.

Question 6: Does working with the construction of reality, in other words, working on a person’s cognition, have anything to do with neuroplasticity?

When we talk about restructuring meanings, we are talking about creating the categories that apply to the more flexible data. Therefore, different emotions and actions are expected each time a change occurs at a cognitive level. Therefore, there is a construction of an alternative reality.

In addition, we will achieve greater neuroplasticity and training of our creative hemisphere, which is the right one if we work to change our neural network.

That way, we can think of more alternative solutions to problems, and we better adapt to understanding other people’s views. Basically, we become more empathetic and we learn to construct more views on things more easily.

Question 7: Is there a relationship between epigenetics and neuroplasticity?

Epigenetics is the branch of biology that examines the causal relationship between genes and their products that give rise to phenotypes. Now there is something important to keep in mind. What we observe is not the person’s genotype, but their phenotype, which is the result of the mixture of genotype and context.

Today, there is still no universal agreement on the extent to which we are shaped by our environment. So epigenetics emerged as a bridge between genetics and environmental impact. The most common definition of the term ‘epigenetics’ is the study of hereditary changes in gene function that occur without altering the DNA sequence.

Remember that stress affects the immune system and is the central effect of all diseases, from a simple cold to even cancer. How do two people facing the same situation react so differently; while one may become ill or have symptoms, the other may remain healthy?

This difference depends on the individual DNA. Stress activates silent genes that are only active during chaotic situations. This is the case with twins who have a cancer gene in their DNA: One dies of terminal cancer at the age of 30 and the other dies of natural causes at the age of 90. What separates them?

Lifestyle, negative emotions, environmental factors, habits, tobacco consumption, diet, stress and very emotional situations can have a major impact on genes. However, the process by which elevated cortisol from stress leaves room for methylation or acetylation of histones that activate the genes remains unknown.

It can be said that neuroplasticity is an anti-stress factor. Having greater flexibility, empathy and performing a self-enforcing decision-making process makes life easier. Therefore, it is convenient to break with the epigenetic activation circuits to improve the quality of life.