Embodied Simulation and the Mirror-Neuron System

Discuss a treatment intervention not discussed in Van der Kolk that could be promising based on the neuroscience of trauma. He discussed EMDR and Yoga and how they are applicable to neuroscience, but you are challenged to look into other trauma interventions and why, neurologically, they make sense. You must use at least 2 scholarly references in your thread.     

Being exposed to traumatic memories is a common element of most of the evidenced based therapies for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  The goal of these types of therapies is to change the thoughts and beliefs associated with the traumatic incident or incidents which will ultimately change the neural functioning of the brain to allow new responses to traumatic stimuli (Peri, Gofman, Tal, & Tuval-Mashiach, 2015).  Although this has been widely studied, the emotional connections between patient and therapist and their relation to exposure based therapies is not so widely studied.  During exposure based therapies, the traumatic memories related by the patient are absorbed by the therapist through embodied simulation (ES).  ES implies that the therapist would understand the meaning of the traumatic event by experiencing the event in his or her mind and then reflecting it back to the patient through facial expressions formed through the mirror-neuron system.  The mirror-neuron system functions when a person observes an action performed by another and they reflect that action back to the other person as if they were experiencing it themselves (Gallese, 2009).

            During exposure therapy the patient begins to relay the details of the traumatic event and the therapist is also experiencing the event through the process of ES.  This process is absorbed by the therapist and reflected to the patient in the form of facial expressions and mirrored emotions demonstrated by the therapist.  While these are not exact reflections of the patient’s emotions, they elicit a response through cognitive processing that allows the patient to experience empathy with the therapist.  This creates an environment for the patient to feel safe and validated and adds to the enhanced regulation of emotions and creates a change in response to traumatic stimuli (Peri, et al., 2015).

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Reference

Gallese, V. (2009). Mirror neurons, embodied simulation, and the neural basis of social identification. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19(5), 519-536.

Peri, T., Gofman, M., Tal, S., & Tuval-Mashiach, R. (2015). Embodied simulation in exposure-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder - a possible integration of cognitive behavioral theories, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis. European Journal of Psychotramatology, 6(1), 29301.