Dr. Abdul Rasheed Hassan, PhD, RAS, BCPC, CCDS, BCIH Clinical Psychologist / Psychotherapist International Medical Center, Jeddah As human beings have evolved, so too has this process of helping, including most recently the counseling profession as a whole. With advances in medical imaging and enhanced understandings of neuroscience, much more is known about the impact of counseling on behavior, feelings, thoughts and physiology. Neurocounseling simply states that behavioral and psychological symptoms have correlating physiological and neurological underpinnings. Counseling psychology has grown into a broader paradigm shift that encompasses brain-based research, involving the nervous system, neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, neurobiology, along with counseling psychology. The Neurocounseling is considered a different approach to treating illness where implementing neuroscientific technology into counseling techniques will be involved in the future. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is increasingly turning to neuroscience as an alternative for moving away from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a new diagnostic approach (brain-based paradigm). Nevertheless, it is very important to understand that negative stress leads to neuronal damage, which in turn impairs a person's faculties for memory and emotional regulation. While traumatic experiences can negatively affect the individual even at the genetic level, positive empathic interventions provided by counselors and the counseling process generates neural pathways, and a neuro-friendly mindset helping to underpin multicultural awareness. Furthermore, brain wave tests prove that when we use positive words, our "feel good" hormones flow. Positive self-talk releases endorphins and serotonin in our brain, which then flow throughout our body, making us feel good. These neurotransmitters stop flowing when we use negative words. This is generally the essence of positive counseling. Counseling psychology as a general practice and health service specialty focuses on how people function both personally and interpersonally. As a specialty it addresses the emotional, social, environmental, school, work and physical health concerns people may have at different stages in their lives; focusing on typical life stressors and more severe issues with which people struggle as individuals and as a part of families, groups, and organizations. Counseling psychologists help individuals with physical, emotional and mental health issues improve their sense of well-being, alleviate feelings of distress and resolve crisis. They provide assessments, diagnosis and treatment of severe psychological symptoms. Sometimes the ability to relax and speak freely without being judged or labeled offers a healing environment for patients. Neurocounseling is an integration of counseling and neuroscience that coincides with functional medicine. It bridges the disciplines of counseling and functional medicine by combining physiology, the brain, neuro-steroids and behaviors to create a synergy that is more effective than their individual parts.
