Psychotherapy can be very helpful because the heart longs for a safe haven, a loving presence so that we can feel seen, loved and felt by another.
However, the methods used today were developed before the age of the emotional brain, which began in 1980 and reached its full form in 2000. Common stress levels became so high that current cognitive-based stress resilience methods were no longer sufficient to handle the influx of stressors. The incidence of chronic physiological stress overload (CPSO) began to increase.
As stress increased, cognitive control was no longer sufficient
Before the year 2000, most of us could think our way out of problems, but increasing stress today causes the prefrontal cortex to function poorly and emotions to be extreme, causing the brain to relinquish control to the stress overload reflex wires stored within it the emotional brain.
With increasing information overload, the pace of change, and existential threats like climate change, our primitive hunter-gatherer brains were failing. More often, thoughts morphed from calming and wisdom-generating thoughts into sources of stress, with rumination, numbness, or cognitive breakdowns.
Prescribing medications without EBT can backfire
Since the emotional brain is the social brain, we rely on the healthy brain states of others to buffer the inevitable downtimes in life. However, as stress overload becomes a common experience and technology keeps us away from social experiences, lowering societal standards exacerbates our stress.
The healthcare system played a role in the stress overload, as talk therapy and friends and family were unable to cushion the strain. Drug companies have helped those most in need, but all but the most vulnerable may have taken the pressure off our need to learn to cope in healthy ways. The protocols at the time were to use more therapies and drugs without addressing the root problem: cognitively processing life without robust emotional tools and a wealth of human connection.
Certified psychotherapists from EBT providers speak of EBT as the new psychotherapy.
The cognitive paradox can lead to self-blame
Researchers have done their part to alert us to the missing link—a way of processing emotions that met the needs of our time but has been largely ignored. Researchers at New York University examined the effectiveness of cognitive stress control and showed the worst possible results.
The cognitive methods worked when stress was low and they didn’t need them, but failed even at moderate stress when they were needed most. This “cognitive paradox” gives users the illusion of control, but as stress increases, they discover that the brain doesn’t work the same way and we spiral out of control and blame ourselves. Patients say, “It’s all my fault,” or, “There’s something wrong with me.” They don’t realize that the problem isn’t themselves, but rather an inadequate ability to process emotions.
We need to adapt to the age of the emotional brain, especially:
Adjustment #1.
Treat stress as the basis of psychotherapy.
Chronic stress causes biochemical and electrical changes that underlie most health problems. When assessing patients, reframe the concerns presented as symptoms of stress hardwiring that they can change. Check in with them to assess their current brain state (5-point scale) and monitor their chronic stress levels or stress set point over time (5-point scale).
Adjustment #2.
Teach skills to combat stress overload and rewire circuits.
The basis of psychotherapy is education about the root cause of the symptoms, which is not having the emotional tools to cope with today’s extreme stress. All patients must master the basic skills of EBT and know that they can use them to change their entire physiology in one to three minutes. When they have problems or problems, they are just wires, and in addition to therapy sessions, they need a circle of support and the tools to combat stress overload and rewire the circuits between sessions. Instead of therapist-centered treatment, design the therapy session to be the start of the week in which the patient will use EBT alone, with friends and family, and with their EBT support group to interrupt the chemical stress cascade anytime, anywhere.
Adjustment #3.
Set the treatment goal of increasing the brain’s set point.
Instead of focusing on one problem at a time, reframe all problems as a symptom of a brain that is under stress. Solve the current problem by rewiring the circuit, providing immediate relief and contributing to the overall physiological goal of increasing the set point.
With cognitive methods, the physiological stress circuit is not rewired, and the “problem” is likely to recur or be replaced by another one. By increasing the set point, rewired circuits are less likely to be restored and the patient’s overall mental and physical health improves.
As stress levels continue to rise, it is imperative that EBT becomes the foundation of psychotherapy, whether due to demand from patients who want actionable, physiologically based therapy or from therapists who feel that something is missing from their methods . As EBT is integrated into healthcare, all current methods are likely to work better. Many problems are prevented because therapists address the root cause: stress overload.
