The Promise of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral Care and Counseling
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The Promise of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral Care and Counseling Kirk A. Bingaman
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract This article continues the author’s exploration of the significance of recent neuroscientific research for pastoral care and counseling Bingaman (Pastoral Psychology 60:477–489, 2011), (Pastoral Psychology, 61:411-422, 2012) by focusing on the plasticity and malleability of the human brain. It makes the case for mindfulness meditation (e.g., Centering Prayer) as a means to lower activity in the amygdala and thereby calm the stress region of the brain. In light of evidence that such mindfulness practices are more effective in reducing anxiety than is a focus on right belief or correct doctrine the case is made for a paradigmatic turn (see Bingaman 2007, pp. 102–110; Bingaman (Pastoral Psychology, 61:411–422, 2012) toward neurotheology, which seeks to understand the relationship between the brain and theology. The article concludes that the revolutionary discoveries concerning neuroplasticity challenge the field of pastoral care and counseling to recognize the ability of contemplative-meditational practices to reduce anxiety and to produce longterm, possibly permanent changes in the neural pathways of the human brain. Keywords Neuroplasticity . Andrew Newberg . Daniel Siegel . Mindfulness meditation . Anxiety . Centering Prayer . Neurotheology . Pastoral care and counseling
Introduction The extraordinary advances in neuroscience in recent years have begun to influence the study of religion, theology, and spirituality. Indeed, the emerging fields of neurotheology and spiritual neuroscience reflect a growing interest in what neuroscientific studies reveal about what is most fundamental to religious faith and the spiritual life. In the past few years my research (Bingaman 2011, 2012) has increasingly focused on important neuroscientific findings regarding the plasticity and malleability of the human brain to make the case for greater use of contemplative and mindfulness meditation practices in pastoral care and counseling. This is based on the discovery that the brain “is built for change via the process K. A. Bingaman (*) Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Pastoral Psychol
of neuroplasticity, which refers to the ability of the brain to change its structure and function” and “to grow new nerve cells and new neural connections” (Newberg 2010, pp. 4–5, 109). For example, it has been demonstrated that in religious communities contemplative spiritual practices have the capacity to balance the brain’s well documented negativity bias, thus generating less fearful and anxious perspectives on life and human relationships. As a consequence, I am arguing for the elevation of such spiritual practices (e.g., the Christian practice of the Centering Prayer, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and so on) to a level of comparable importance with religious belief and doctrine in order to better enable pa
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