ABSTRACT
Insights into the physiological benefits of psychotherapy come from the use of positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging and other scanning techniques to see how psychotherapy itself affects the brain. V. Kumari reviewed the evidence that successful psychological therapies induce changes to brain function, often in a way comparable to drug treatments. A. Schore highlighted that a good therapist needs to use both sides of her brain. The right side invokes her own intuitive, unconscious, subjective responses, while her left brain is using her objective, rational base in theory. The ultimate goal of understanding psychotherapy's effects on the brain is to influence the choice of treatments. Healing the attachment traumas, creating a new safe base, and learning to regulate the extremes of overactivated or deactivated attachment systems are vital for the left brain–right brain balance required for psychological healing.
