Neuroscience of Emotions: The Necessary Implementation within a Counselling and Psychotherapeutic Framework

The environment provides space for various occurrences of feelings, behaviours and emotions. A combination of innate learning systems and bodily sensations formulate functional responses to the stimuli received from one’s internal and external experience. However, it is first necessary to distinguish the different causes for feelings, behaviours and emotions as they relate to the study of cognitive and affective neuroscience. The functional state is a term colloquial to affective neuroscience used to describe the experience of emotion as a reference to its purpose (or function). Using neuroimaging, affective neuroscience explores which parts of the brain are activated when these states (or emotions) are experienced, to categorically investigate individual differences and deficits in mental, social, and behavioural health such as psychiatric disorders (Adolphs, 2017; Clark, 2020). Though parts of cognitive neuroscience intersect with the above exploration, its underpinning relies on the influence of context-dependent stimuli over time, rather than reactivity to a specific momentary input (Feldman-Barrett, 2017). Speaking broadly, neuroscience focuses on the nervous system’s relationship to one’s emotional experience, whereas counselling and psychotherapy focus on the conscious experience, conceptualisation, and attribution (perception) of emotions. These aspects are synonymous and therefore understanding their correspondence is crucial to holistic practice. This essay will explore the biological processes that underlie human cognitive functioning, using research from affective and cognitive neuroscience. Relevant research will aid in demonstrating the link between neuroscience and the field of counselling and psychotherapy; discussing strengths and gaps in the research.

Emotions motivate one to bond, to seek attachment to others, and to navigate through the complexities of life (Panksepp, 1998). It is recognised that in order to determine the possible state of experience, an emotion can only be viewed subjectively in relation to the environment it is experienced in (Adolphs, 2017). Context-dependent sets of stimuli and behaviours are the indicators of an emotion’s functional role. Further exploration of past experiences such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), may give meaning to these present sensations and provide insight of the individual’s experience of different states of the nervous system (Feldman-Barrett, 2017; Panksepp, 2019). Learning to observe how one’s physical sensations relate to emotions and feelings will illuminate how the individual constructs emotional experiences (Van Der Kolk, 2014). 

According to Panksepp (1998), primary-process affective emotions (e.g. rage, fear, panic) are similar to the distinct patterns of neural activity in other animals. These feelings have an important role in controlling behaviour, especially conditionally. Subcortical structures such as the amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal grey are often attributed to the processing of these emotions and have been stimulated in attempts to induce emotions (Adolph, 2017). Gainotti (2005) suggests “true emotions” are automatically generated in the right hemisphere or lower schematic level and then the left hemisphere or higher conceptual level is where emotions are consciously analysed for intentional control and action. Whilst this is only one suggestion, multiple other research similarly concludes there is a structure-function relationship between the two hemispheres which arises from the lower unconscious processing areas of the brainstem and limbic system and eventuate into the higher conscious explicit left brain (Joseph, 1992; Cheng et al., 2014; Ladavas & Bertini, 2021; Kheirkhah et al., 2021; Schore, 2022). Schore (2021, 2022) suggested the right temporoparietal junction, responsible for integrating input from the sensory receptors and development of self-functioning processes, plays a role in the subjective emotional experience and therefore a role in non-verbal emotional communication. Similar reports note neural substrates of attention, emotion and perceptive mechanisms located in the right hemisphere (De Heering & Rosson, 2015; Hartikainen, 2021). EEG imaging has also shown the executive regulatory system of emotions in the right brain, playing an important role in the attachment system (Bosch-Bayard et al., 2021). The left brain communicates logical, linguistic behaviours and the right brain nonverbally communicates its unconscious self state to other right brains of those receptive to receiving this intersubjective salient emotional communications (Schore, 2022). Deficits in right brain relational processing are suggested to underlie all psychological and psychiatric disorders (Schore, 2014). 

The right temporoparietal junction has been observed to activate in both the client and therapist when they engage in this social interaction. Making the shift from left brain conscious cognition to right brain unconscious emotional and relational functions during therapeutic sessions, is likely to support the development of a therapeutic alliance. This is because when there is attention to both the client’s verbal symptomatology and the non-verbal body-based communications of emotional arousal, there is an enhancement in intersubjective communication (Hartikainen, 2021; Schore, 2022). This is your brain's attempt to teach you to make more positive predictions, to bond and make a prosocial attachment, to make sense of the other person, and develop empathic understanding of one another. Right brain-to-right brain attunement is the clinician’s ability for empathic responding and presence and is a core psychobiological element of the therapeutic alliance. The more coupled the brains of the client and counsellor, the better the alliance (Koole & Tschacher, 2016). However, it is not yet clear where to look in the brain for emotional states and the research in human studies have not yet produced any consistent imaging for even a single emotion (Feldman-Barrett, 2017). 

Exploring the affective nuances of human emotional experiences invites the presence of scientific investigation into the therapeutic conversation. From early development, children are continually and innately learning to adapt to their environment both socially and ecologically. The neuroplasticity of cortical tissue and neural networks of infants is greatly affected by the type of attention the infant receives from its caregivers, leading to either resilient or maladaptive strategies for future experiences. The emotional resonance from caregivers is the most important aspect of communication, determining mental health outcomes through social affects and experiential learning. It promotes positive emotional effects (seeking, joy of play, pleasure), enhances the capacity for emotional regulation, and increases resilience and tolerance of fear, rage, and panic/separation-distress (Koole & Tschacher, 2016; Panksepp et al., 2019; Schore, 2022). Affect automatically encodes survival trajectories (Panksepp et al., 2019). Behaviours can derive from an array of emotional contextual information and at the same time can be ceased due to environmental challenges. As newborns, babies regulate physiologically through the primary caregivers touch, movement, odour and warmth. These interactions become increasingly complex as the child grows and learns to imitate the behaviours of their caregivers. Secure relationships promote regulated internal bodily systems, whereas insecure relationships deregulate internal bodily systems. This affective learning clearly poses a critical influence on long-term mental health issues when one considers the purpose, feeling, and perception of emotions (Panksepp et al., 2019, p.38; Yovell et al., 2015).  

Excessive negative affect from ACEs increases the likelihood of mental health disorders and overactive defence systems. Frequent dysregulation and disorganised insecure attachment histories cause pathogenic neurological developmental pathways. The better a person learns to internalise affect-regulatory processes, such as a secure sense of self, the more equipped they will be to take on life’s challenges. From infancy where they attune to their caregiver, through to adulthood where they synchronise with the emotional responses of their relationship partner (Koole & Tschacher, 2016), the ability to attune and communicate shape the structural and functional development of the unconscious mind’s right brain survival functions and are expressed as attachment dynamics at unconscious levels for the rest of the lifespan (Schore, 2022). Children and adults alike, being in an empathic environment and an attuned presence will strengthen one’s own emotional regulatory capacities (Panksepp et al., 2019). Using past experiences as predictors of future uncertainties is a survival mechanism for goal-directed behaviour (planning, reasoning) when environmental challenges are encountered (Papakitsou, 2020). Although, adults build volitional control over a level of their emotional regulation, expression, and emotional states, increasing the complexity of emotional reactivity to environmental stimuli where these functional (emotional) states serve as a flexible, predictive and context-sensitive coping mechanism for dealing with such environmental challenges (Adolph, 2017). 

Feldman-Barrett (2020) proposes that rather than brain networks being the primary instigators of emotions, it is continual construction of context-specific information received from sensory input which constructs hypotheses - as prediction signals - to guide actions and give meaning to one’s experience. Namely, using past experiences, sociocultural concepts, bodily sensations, and future predictions similar experiences are grouped together and this is what creates one’s emotional experiences (Feldman-Barrett & Satpute, 2019; Givens & Wilkinson, 2021). Emotions thus provide a mechanism for understanding an individual’s desires, behaviours and actions both within one’s self, and their relationship with others because they work to evaluate an individual’s physiological, neurological and cognitive experience (Scheff, 1990; Lawler, 1999). More specifically, these elements of experience will vary in intensity based on the level of effect they have on one’s personal experience (Papakitsou, 2020). Where feelings are the conscious experience of emotions, behaviours are the expression of emotions or emotional reaction, and the goal is to understand the link between these (and other cognitive states). This modern attachment theory, or regulation theory posits the importance of affect regulation for emotional development and is seen in therapy as intersubjectivity, or co-constructed space of two people which supports a transmission of emotional communication and interactive regulation (Schore, 2014). A therapist who can communicate both verbally and nonverbally, and attune to the non-conscious body-based affective relational information of their client, has a far greater chance of supporting the regulation of their nervous system, and effectively enhancing their client’s attachment bonds. The client’s vulnerability and the clinician’s availability develop the relational therapeutic alliance and deepen as the intensity and frequency of intersubjectivity is shared. As this alliance flourishes, the client feels safe to describe and regulate their inner experience and eventually change. The relationship between client and counsellor where the counsellor’s empathic attunement and responsiveness is assisting with regulating the client’s inner states through acceptance, validation, and support is seen as synchronisation. This synchronisation is associated with a working alliance during counselling (Feldman-Barrett, 2017; Zhang et al., 2020). Therefore, all models of therapeutic intervention are an attempt to improve affect regulation and emotional self-regulatory processes. 

However, as proposed earlier, there could be distinctions to the definition of emotion. Whilst these two major theories, affective and cognitive neuroscience, argue their definition, it seems they are not mutually exclusive. Whilst the former argues that specific brain areas can induce primal emotional states (such as punishing or rewarding), promote opioid release, and activate neural systems such as the polyvagal system, the latter focuses on interoception, experiential blindness, and the construction of emotions based on giving meaning to raw sensory data in the present moment as it relates to past experiences (Montag & Panksepp, 2016; Panksepp et al., 2019; Feldman-Barrett & Satpute, 2019). Affective feelings are not just relevant to emotions, they are considered primal states which are interpreted based on cultural learning, and this is what constitutes emotions. The cognition aspect, or core affect, is measured across two dimensions: valence (positive/negative) and arousal (high/low). These measurements of core affect create a multidimensional process of constructed experience and individual interpretation (Feldman-Barrett, 2020; Bestelmeyer et al., 2017). For example, a withdrawal would be a common reaction to an experience which is negative valence (bitter taste) or high arousal (loud noise) compared to a willingness to approach an experience of positive valence (sweets) or low arousal (email). By defining these concepts, neuroscience can be integrated with counselling and psychotherapy as a means of recognising individual processing mechanisms as a response to external stimuli (Citron et al., 2014). 

Traditional counselling practice seeks to discover implicit emotions to help validate and mirror emotional experiences (Givens & Wilkinson, 2021). Wilkinson (2018) opposed the use of neuroscience in counselling practice, stating that clients change when they gain insight into their own lived experience. He agreed that neural processing and neuroplasticity is correlated with human transformation, however, this does not denote an informative stance of how talk therapy contributes to an individual’s changed experience. Beeson and Miller (2019) supported this view, that therapists may inadvertently implement a reductionist rather than holistic view of their clients if they overemphasise the neuroscience of emotions. Through this lens, the accuracy of assumption denotes the validity of a therapist’s connectedness to their client’s emotions. Furthermore, this method supports emotions as triggered reactions to external stimuli rather than internal self-regulatory functioning and therefore the application of rational thinking would manage irrational thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Dobson & Dobson, 2018). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) uses the method of identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts as a means to develop practical self-help strategies and has been successful in the treatment of phobias, trauma and depression (Field et al., 2017). However, this method is not always successful, especially in cases of PTSD (Van Der Kolk, 2014). A newer model of the neurobiology of emotions suggests they are related to the brain’s capacity to make predictions and therefore vary across individuals and situations (Feldman-Barrett, 2017; Givens & Wilkinson, 2021). The neurocounselling model supports the client’s individuality in constructing their experience in relation to the external world and develops a sense of control over their life. Methods such as narrative therapy and creative arts therapy invite the client to express their experience through creative means and alter neural networks connections associated with the problem experience (Field et al., 2017). Additionally, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) enables clients to observe their experiences without having to speak about their history (Van Der Kolk, 2014). The side-to-side eye movement is proposed to mimic slow-wave REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. During REM sleep, the amygdala slows down, synchronising with the rest of the brain and deciphering emotionally relevant information from irrelevant material (Doman, 2023). The theory of constructed emotion has implications for current counselling practice. As classical counselling relates identifying and categorising emotions based on subtle physical shifts and facial expressions, this theory suggests emotions are constructed momentarily. This idea suggests that the practice of making assumptions of the client’s emotional landscape based on past knowledge would only provide a minute portion of information. The focus would need to shift away from what the client is feeling, and towards what they are doing with the feeling (Givens & Wilkinson, 2021). This newer model recognises the potential for a variety of emotional experiences based on a person’s subjective history. 

The relevance of studying the neuroscience of emotions is that emotions, whether they are elicited in specific areas of the brain, or groups of variables of information, whether they are constructions of the world, or reactions to it, emotions are used to build a framework of information for interpreting the individual’s past, present and future experiences (Givens & Wilkinson, 2021). Primal social bonding mechanisms foundational to the human experience (Schore, 2012; Shore 2019) are the interpersonal synchrony between two organisms. It acts beneath the level of awareness influencing the core of the subjective self from early infancy and all throughout the lifespan (Schore, 2022). The determinative factor being that future predictions are based on past experiences, but past experiences are remembered as perceptive occurrences and fundamental ingredients to one’s present experience (Feldman-Barrett, 2017). Research that explores the overlapping neural systems related to specific emotions, or exploring neural systems that relate to a subset of emotions, would further distinguish the interactional neural substrates and their relationship to emotional states, experiences and concepts. Integrating affective neuroscience into counselling and psychotherapy advances analysis to higher cognitive, clinical, and therapeutic interventions. This recognition highlights the influence of positive and negative emotions on developmental systems. A focus on co-creating an emotional experience rather than attempting to make assumptions based on objective observations offers a deeper cohesion in the therapeutic relationship and this is what helps shift the client from a dysregulated and insecure attachment style to a resilient, and predominantly regulated one. Building an alliance where there is an understanding of what someone is saying, why they are saying it, and how they came to understand this belief, are the essential building blocks for the therapeutic relationship. Being able to attune to the nonverbal body-based messages and act as a co-regulatory body for the dysregulated client, improves the synchronicity of the right brain-to-right brain connection and subsequently improves the neurobiological mechanisms which underlie the foundational regulatory processes. Like any strong relationship in nature, there is always more than one way of understanding the situation.

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