How emerging science shows us that presence is key

Counselling is something of a complicated field- it's as much about science as it is about philosophy. A counsellor through their own journey through training, reading and life will fine their own 'Way of Being', their own approach to how they serve others as a therapist.

But what is undeniable is that reading is part of that journey. New science and discoveries about the person is found, new debates emerge and old ones resolved or put to bed. Our ability to look at answers is as important as us engaging with new questions.

As the seminal Carl Rogers once put it, paying attention to the scientific developments that happen in Psychology is important for bettering our practice 1. In this blog I want to look at the different aspects of what I've read recently around neurology, what helps and what they point towards.

Therapists who focus on a relationship with clients and how the client perceives the therapist are key areas that help clients 2, 3. But what is measured as the "best" therapy is still up for debate. New data emerges all the time, new approaches or programs are developed, even new research needs to be replicated and scrutinised. What we know now may change tomorrow, but we can still do a lot with what we learn.

Plastic change

First question to lead us, do psychotherapies even lead to brain plasticity (the brain developing)? The research is patchy, especially using public research search-engines. However new techniques have meant we can observe these changes over the last 20 or so years. Karlsson talks about how a lot of research around cognitive-based and psychodynamic therapies are 'top-down' change where change happening in the pre-frontal cortex shapes changes in the amygdala 4.

Recent research (though is very early in it's findings) suggests that children in their very early years (first two years) make really generalised neuron connections from what they learn as they explore, as they get older learning makes more specific connections 5. Even though this can sound common sense, the implications of this could be profound, for instance in understanding how we understand adverse childhood experiences impacts.

There is also findings from research with young people6 and people with schizophrenia 7 suggest IQ (formal measure of intelligence) and intelligence are not connected- poverty, stress and environment have a much greater impact on us.

Freud rises

Stänicke and friends have made a case that Freud's theories fit within modern neuroscientific understanding of the brain by exploring different constructs from Psychoanalysis 8. In keeping with my argument that there is much philosophy in counselling/psychology as there is science, you could extend this to person-centred ideas. The idea of projection, is all about perception and how we imposed our subjective experience onto what is objectively happening.

New science has shown that there is no clear biological factor for trauma-induced dissociation/repression 9, that doesn't make is less valid, it highlights that the person has protected themselves through avoidance- a natural and intelligent strategy.

Subjectivity and difference in people's experiences and how they process it links to what I wrote about in my recent blog post on trauma. The perceptual, subjective argument is not to delegitimise or invalidate, on the contrary, awareness of your own personal needs means you are less encumbered by the expectations or models of others.

What's in the mind and in the room

Two key working theories about how neurological processes impact the counselling relationship have emerged. The first is Stephen Porges' 'polyvagal theory', which explains the complex interaction between behaviour and the nervous system and how we evaluate safety and threat 10. The significant part is 'co-regulation', where the therapist/counsellor moves towards and embraces the client's feelings.

Allan Schore's research into communication between the right-hemispheres of the brain between a client and counsellor through our contact and empathy and attachment feeds into the importance of presence from the counsellor 11.

These reassert that the more you are with someone in their feelings- pain, joy, anger or any other - the more you understand and are flowing with them. By flowing with and empathically responding to those rather than reactively or miss-reading, a counsellor is showing you that what you feel inside is valid. As they accept you, you begin to make peace with yourself and the energy and feelings in you that need release.

What we're seeing in research is the power of an empathic relationship, not just in feeling heard or safe, but that it gives us as individuals awareness and independence.

References

1. Rogers, C. (1961). On Becoming a Person: a therapist’s View of psychotherapy. London: Constable. Buy New: Waterstones

2. Cooper, Mick (2026) The friendly facts. Therapy Today. 37 (2)

3. Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 316–340. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000172

4. Karlsson, H. (2011). How psychotherapy changes the brain. In Psychiatric Times. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/how-psychotherapy-changes-brain

5. Irving, M. (2026). Is The Brain Born “Blank” or “Full?” New Study Reveals a Surprise. ScienceAlert. [Accessed 13 July 2026].

6. Staff writer. (2026). Socioeconomic Status Leaves Deep Imprints on Developing Brains - Neuroscience News. Neuroscience News. [Accessed 13 July 2026].

7. Neuroscience News (2026). Trauma and Poverty Linked to Brain Changes in Schizophrenia. Neuroscience News. [Accessed 13 July 2026].

8. Stänicke, E., Hovet, B.S. and Stänicke, Line Indrevoll (2026). Freud’s Model of the Mind Within a Predictive Processing Neuroscientific Paradigm. Entropy, [online] 28(3), p.318. doi:10.3390/e28030318.

9. Otgaar, H., Howe, M.L., Patihis, L., Mangiulli, I., Dodier, O., Huntjens, R., Krackow, E., Jelicic, M. and Lynn, S.J. (2025). The neuroscience of dissociative amnesia and repressed memory: Premature conclusions and unanswered questions. Legal and Criminological Psychology. doi:10.1111/lcrp.12272.

10. What is polyvagal theory. (2024). In Polyvagal Institute. https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/whatispolyvagaltheory

11. Schore, A. (2022). Right brain-to-right brain psychotherapy: Recent scientific and clinical advances. Annals of General Psychiatry, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-022-00420-3