Biological Basis of Psychotherapy Treatments

Introduction

Psychotherapy treatments are based on the functioning of the brain-mind and the ensuing behavior and maladaptive responses (Javanbakht & Alberini, 2019). Therefore, understanding how psychotherapy treatments can assist in improving the psychopathologies can improve approaches to mental health issues. This essay discusses the biological basis of psychotherapies and how culture, socioeconomics and religion influence an individual’s perspective regarding psychotherapy treatment.Biological Basis of Psychotherapy Treatments

Psychotherapy has biological basis because it targets the brain and how the brain functions. Tyron (2016) explains that psychotherapy targets the maladaptives in the brain and repairs the negative brain adaptivatives by susitituting them with postive pathways. The brain maps experiences using nuerons and thus psychotherapy aims to disengage the defective mappings. For example, psychotherapy treatments line the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) alters the biological structure of the brain. For instance, the study by Tyron (2016) indicated that CBT lowered the levels of glucose mentabolism in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and thus improved the OCS symptoms.

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Cultural beliefs impact the perspective of people regarding psychotherapy. For instance, some cultures stigmatize mental illness and may belief only in pharmacological treatments and this may hinder people from seeking psychotherapy treatment (Wegner & Rhoda, 2015). Similarly, religious beliefs can lead people to seek divine healing when having mental health problems and thus may not seek psychotherapy treatment (Goncalves et al, 2015). Lastly, the socioeconomic status may affect the ability of an individual to seek psychotherapy treatment. For example, psychotherapy treatment may be perceived as expensive and this may hinder people from the low socio-economic status from seeking the treatment (Sripada et al, 2015).

Conclusion

Psychotherapy treatment has biological basis because it targets the maladaptive aspects in the brain. Finally, the cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, as well as the socioeconomic status impact the perspectives and ability of an individual to seek psychotherapy treatments.

References

Goncalves J, Luchetti G, Menezes P & Vallada H. (2015). Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Psychol Med, 45(14): 2937–2949. Biological Basis of Psychotherapy Treatments

Javanbakht, A., & Alberini, C. M. (2019). Editorial: Neurobiological Models of Psychotherapy. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 13, 144. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00144

Sripada R, Richards S, Sheila R, Walters H, Bohnert K, Gorman L, Kees M & Blow A. (2015). Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health Service Use Among National Guard Soldiers. Psychiatric Services, 1(66), 992-995;

Tyron W. (2016). Psychotherapy Integration via Theoretical Unification. International Journal of Integrative Psychotherapy, 7(1),1-26.

Wegner, L. & Rhoda, A. (2015). The influence of cultural beliefs on the utilization of rehabilitation services in a rural South African context: Therapists’ perspective. African Journal of Disability, 4(1), 128-136. Biological Basis of Psychotherapy Treatments