Translating Neuroscience into Counselling Practice Transposition la Neuroscience Dans la Pratique Du Counseling

During the last two decades we have witnessed an impressive evolution of our understanding of the neurobiological basis of psychological processes. Methodological developments in neuroscience have brought the possibility of directly examining important neurobiological correlates of the human mind. Research programs using techniques such as neuroimaging (Goncalves et al., 2015), eventrelated potentials (Pinheiro et al., 2014), psychophysiology (Oliveira-Silva & Goncalves, 2011), neuromodulation (Carvalho et ah, 2015), and neurobiochemistry (Mesquita et ah, 2013) have substantially contributed to the understanding of the relationship between brain, mind, and health. Such research has helped to elucidate (a) alterations in brain processes associated with different clinical conditions, (b) how alterations can be traced from the genetic and molecular to the brain systems levels, and (c) how the brain processes are influenced by effective psychosocial interventions.The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recently acknowledged the importance of neuroscience research to mental health by endorsing the Research Domain Criteria Project (RD°C; Insel & Lieberman, n.d.). This project invites mental health experts to characterize psychological domains (e.g., negative and positive valence systems, cognitive systems, systems for social processes, arousal, and regulatory systems) in different levels of analysis (e.g., genes, molecules, cells, circuits, physiology, behaviour, self-reports, and paradigms). The objective of the RD°C project is to move the field toward a transdiagnostic approach in which mental health issues are seen as alterations of biological and mind processes. Not clear from the RD°C matrix is how different units and domains interact to guide clinical practice. As pointed out by Cuthbert (2014), the model fails to address the environmental, sociocultural, and developmental aspects associated with each component of the RD°C matrix.For counsellors, the ultimate objective of the RD°C matrix is the translation of neuroscience findings into more effective prevention and psychosocial interventions. In order to accomplish this, we not only need to understand the neural correlates of psychological dysfunction, but we must also identify the psychosocial mechanisms (i.e., environmental aspects) that positively or negatively influence neuroplasticity across various stages of development (see Figure 1 for an illustration). In this article, we address how counsellors can bring neuroscience into their practice with clients across developmental life stages by utilizing interventions that promote positive brain plasticity and reverse the effects of negative plasticity. In the present context, positive plasticity refers to increased efficiency in brain structure, function, and connectivity as a product of internal/external stimulation and is associated with adaptive neurogenesis (i.e., development of new neurons) or synaptogenesis (i.e., developing or strengthening synaptic connections). On the contrary, the concept of negative plasticity refers to decreased efficiency in brain structure, function, and connectivity as a consequence of internal/external stimulation and is associated with maladaptive necrosis (i.e., neuronal death) or synaptic loss (i.e., loss or weakening of synaptic connections). It is important to note that there are situations, particularly during neurodevelopment, in which programmed cell death (i.e., apoptosis) or synaptic loss (i.e., pruning) are adaptive. Therefore, in the present context, the concepts of positive and negative plasticity encompass only situations of increasing or decreasing the brain's efficiency induced by internal/external stimulation.NEUROPLASTICITY AND DEVELOPMENTRecently, we have witnessed a growing interest in the contributions of neuroscience to counselling psychology practice and research (Goncalves & Perrone-McGovern, 2014). Some of the most popular counselling textbooks are progressively including neuroscience research (e. …