Neural Constructs and Parts of Self
Our brain is a connection machine. It stores data and associates relevant information together. These neural pathways form structures of associations we call neural constructs. When the brain identifies a cue that is related to a particular neural construct, it activates it. From the mundane, such as a person you recognize or the type of car you drive to a smell, vocal tone, or even a thought inside your own head, these cues can activate neural constructs the brain believes is associated with the cue.
Move 1 of ASR builds conceptualizations of clients and others out of aspects frequently found within neural constructs. These include thoughts, or constructed meanings as we refer to them, feelings, behaviors, memory, and underlying needs and longings. There is always a kind of congruency within neural constructs as the brain needs them to make sense. Due to our limited, and often even skewed, perspectives at the time of formation, the meanings we create to explain our felt experience are often maladaptive and keep us trapped in broken patterns of thought and behaviors.
Within the memory component of these neural constructs is a memory of who we were when the construct was first created. This “back-up” version of us is called a self-state. The self-state in the memory is frozen in time. Our age developmental age, maturity level, and perspective of who we were at the time of formation becomes locked within the neural construct. Think “inner child” work, though this process can occur at any age. External and/or internal cues can activate a neural construct, eliciting the associated feeling and self-state. This is why we can find a feeling/self-state vying with us for leadership in the moment.
To restructure neural constructs, we have to elicit them and unlock the associated aspects of the construct. In ASR, we do this through the felt experience. The more awakened feelings are the more “active” the associated aspects of the neural construct become. Due to the science of memory reconsolidation, these constructs are constantly looking for confirmation that what was constructed in the past is still valid in the present, with a bias that it will be. When we facilitate corrective experiences while these constructs are unlocked, the brain is able to create new neural associations within the construct. As new associations are validated and trustworthy, the neural construct is able to heal and evolve to a more adaptive, congruent, and healthy expression.