To answer this question, we first need to spend some time looking at how the brain works. The field of neuroscience has provided us with significant insights into how everyday human experiences work in the brain. As you know, the brain is super complex and even with all the new research from the latest technologies we are still far away from having a full understanding of brain function.

Rather than provide a complex understanding of neuroscience, a simple model of brain functioning has been developed by neuroscientist and physician Paul MacLean in the 1960’s. He proposed the triune or three brain hypothesis. This model breaks the brain down into three general categories: The New Brain – Neocortex (language, conceptual thoughts), Mammalian Brain – Limbic System (feelings and emotions), and Reptilian Brain – Brain Stem (instinct, survival). Each part being developed over the course of thousands of years of evolution.

Here are some basic facts about how the brain works and how each of these parts work:

The overall human brain:

• 86 billion neurons, each connected to others in multiple ways
• 500 trillion synapses (more than all the computers on earth)
• 70,000 thoughts a day
• 20% of the body’s energy is consumed by the brain
• 30 times faster than the most advanced supercomputers

Reptilian Brain (Brain stem):

• Brain stem, Cerebellum – fully developed by 6-months of age
• No ability or desire to reason, no comprehension of ideals or abstract concepts
• Only knows world through five senses, doesn’t understand verbal language or time, thus only responds to sensual inputs (e.g. body language, smells, sounds, etc.)
• Experiences fear/anxiety of a world it cannot understand and will do anything to try to manage fear
• Regulates survival functions: respiration, heart rate, elimination, fear, pain, pleasure
• No sense of self or self-consciousness
• Born with certain level of amygdala activity (ambient level of innate fear: DNA and human life experience)
• Higher levels of amygdala activity (hypervigilance) predict future risk of anxiety and depression when experiencing ordinary stressors (e.g. losing job, marital discord, school difficulties, etc.)
• Lower levels of amygdala activity predict difficulty identifying risk situations
• Human experience can alter amygdala activity level (e.g. abuse, neglect, war, poverty, meditation, yoga, etc.)
• Biggest threat: not belonging or having “tribe”, feeling disconnected from others, lack of safe relationship (when experiencing this threat, same neural pathway as physical pain is triggered, indicating survival maybe be in jeopardy)
• Evolution wise, the oldest part of the brain

Mammalian Brain (Limbic System):

• Does not respond to language
• Hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala, limbic – emotional center of brain, fully developed by 6 years of age
• Little impulse control
• Function is to relieve stress/anxiety created by reptilian brain’s genetics and experience
• Develops short-cuts to rational thinking (e.g. heuristics, biases) that are meant to manage reptilian reactions with no concern about long-term consequences, looking for immediate relief, these short-cuts are more focused on what worked best for last 50,000 generations and not the last 500.
• Fight, flight, freeze (getting big, running away, or playing dead)

Lower two-thirds of brain (Reptilian & Mammalian) (subconscious):

• Majority of brain’s energy consumption is from these two parts of brain
• Estimated that 95% of cognitive activity and resulting behavior emanates from this part of brain
• Processes information at 4 billion bits/second, (4,000 MPH), forms opinions in milliseconds
• Processes images 60,000 times faster than text
• Painful experiences have twice the impact as pleasurable ones
• Basic needs emanate from these parts of brain: belonging, autonomy, safety/security, self-expression, purpose/significance, and connection

New Brain (Neocortex brain):

• “Thinking/rational” brain, often called the “CEO” of the brain, not fully developed until mid-20’s
• Can override impulses originating in limbic system but can’t prevent them. Process is not efficient
• Oversees and manages processing of sight, hearing, logic, language, spatial reasoning, creativity, and conscious thought
• Key is awareness of subconscious impulses and judgements rather than denial (aware of built in racism, sexism, ageism, biases, judgements, etc.)
• Skewed communication pathways, one neural pathway sending information down to lower two-thirds of brain for every five neuropathways that send information from bottom two-thirds up to neocortex
• Processes information at 2 million bits/second (2 MPH vs. 4,000 MPH of two-thirds brain)
• Only part of brain that ever rests, goes “offline”
• Alcohol, drugs, fear, and anxiety can cause neocortex to go “offline”
• Past and future focused
• Acts as “parent” or “mentor” filter to bottom two-thirds
• Evolution wise, the newest part of the brain

So, why is all of this technical information about the brain relevant to the question, why experiential therapy? Much of life is driven by subconscious thoughts, trauma is stored in the deeper parts of the brain. Traditional talk therapy involves communicating through the Neocortex, but the “problems” are in the deeper parts of the brain. Some of the key points from understanding how the brain works that undermines the efficacy of traditional talk therapy model:

• The brain is wired to favor the deeper, survival-oriented parts (one neural pathway sending information down to lower two-thirds of brain for every five neuropathways that send information from bottom two-thirds up to neocortex).
• The limbic system does not respond to language, and talk therapy is all about communicating via spoken language

Talk therapy is like trying to paddle upstream against a strong current. Progress can be made but it’s very slow. Because trauma and subconscious actions and thinking are stored in the deeper parts of the brain, engaging in therapeutic approaches that involve more embodied action (somatic work) and being present to the senses (here and now brain inputs) connect more with these parts of the brain and typically yield much more fruitful results in a much shorter period of time.

Experiential therapy is an umbrella term that encompasses many different types of therapy modalities (EMDR, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, Expressive Arts, Psychodrama, Ecotherapy, Animal assisted, etc.) Experiential therapy favors action over talking, it involves being more fully connected with the body, the senses.

You might be thinking, why then do insurance companies say the “gold standard” of therapy is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on changing cognitive beliefs (swimming upstream)? Well first, CBT has a place in the therapeutic milieu of modalities. It can particularly be helpful in early addiction recovery strategies. But more and more research is showing that body based, experiential methods bring about lasting change far more successfully than CBT. I propose that insurance likes CBT because it’s easier to quantify than experiential methods. Also talk therapy has been around since the late 19th century, whereas information gleaned from more recent neuroscience research has helped us adapt therapeutic approaches to yield more effective results. And like most fields, changing long established patterns takes time.

References:

• The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
• Information about brain: Ted Klontz handout on Triune Brain model