Neuroplasticity: secret weapon for healing

Neuroplasticity is not restricted only to the brain’s early developmental period.  Mature brains are continually changing and adapting (Pinel 2018). This realization came as some relief to this particular mature student enrolled in Yorkville U’s MA Counselling Psychology program.

Initially, neuroscientists were trained to think of the adult brain as fixed, but they had to accept the findings of studies into adult neurogenesis  (Kornack & Rakic, 1999) (Erikkson et al., 1998) which reported that new neurons are added to human hippocampi (a section of the brain). Specifically, it is estimated that 700 new neurons are added to the adult human hippocampus per day (Kempermann, 2013; Kheirbek & Hen, 2013; Spalding et al., 2013). (Pinel 2018)