Good-enough early nurturing fosters the neural networks which enable us to regulate our emotions healthily. People grow up trusting their emotions, be they painful of joyful, and capable of responding to our social world appropriately. In contrast, poor early environments compromise the development of the right hemisphere, leaving us struggling to respond to our social world appropriately and unable to regulate our emotions healthily. Repair is not achieved by making the unconscious conscious: rather it depends on restructuring the emotional brain itself through building new neural networks. Achieving this requires relationally based, emotionally focused psychotherapy with an empathic therapist who is an active participant in the process. Healing occurs primarily through the non-verbal, right brain, implicit connection between a therapist and patient. The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that functions largely below the level of consciousness to control visceral functions such as heart rate, respiratory rate, digestion, pupil dilation, etc.
