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Rewiring Neurons in Young Women with PTSD

With adolescent trauma victims and their families, therapist Brad Rentfro, LPC, is using new brain research to great effect. Since neural pathways can actually be re-routed, says Rentfro, a trauma specialist, PTSD patients can literally change how their brains process both old and new situations.

“We teach families about how the brain works at the very beginning of treatment,” says Rentfro.  “Knowing that they can actually change and heal at the neurobiological level really gives them a sense of tangible hope and helps accelerate progress.”

Therapists can help this neural “reprogramming” along by creating a safe, affirming, supportive context in which the young-adult trauma victim can explore past events but have a different emotional experience when they do this exploration.  This helps the young woman re-experience previously traumatizing experiences without feeling overwhelmed emotionally.  Feeling loved, valued, and supported as she re-engages past experiences(s) actually creates new neural connections that allow her to perceive not only the event, but its meaning and her own value, very differently.

The result is that the young woman feels and behaves less more positively and less fearfully; this in turn helps her create new experiences and, therefore, even more positive neural connections/pathways. This way, personal growth becomes self-perpetuating, allowing changes made in treatment to continue post-discharge.