The Neuroscience of Accessing Distressed Parts Through Feelings

Our brain connects aspects of our experience together through neural pathways. The neurons that hold specific sets of data are connected by these neural pathways into networks of linked neurons. When the brain identifies a cue related to something it knows, it activates the associated neural network. Our brain is full of a web of interconnected networks that contain aspects of what makes us who we are.

On a smaller scale, these networks contain neural constructs. Think of a neural construct as a single circuit on an electrical panel. The curcuit has a path that links elements together. Curcuits have both a specific fucntion and a function within the greater electrical network. Multiplicity Theory would call these neural constructs a part of self. The construct has elements of memory, sensory, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connected within the construct.

There are many ways to access a construct. However, accessing through the feeling allows for a more visceral access point. It is also the part of the construct we tend to struggle with the most. Our feelings represent the most vulnerable aspects of ourselves, our injuries and traumas, our needs and longings.

This is why we pursue the most distressed feeling in therapy — it gives us the clearest and deepest access to the distressed neural construct.

In addition, attunement allows us to co-experience the felt distress which (1) offers soothing to the distress, (2) provides us a higher quality assessment and (3) accesses the most critical part of the construct that needs a corrective experience.