Questions about firmware: (how) does therapy produce changes in firmware?

I am a graduate student, getting my second master's degree in Social Work; my first master's degree is in Interpersonal Communication. I have also just graduated from the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center with training in Gestalt Therapy. My background so far has been working with sexual abuse/assault survivors, and also working with suicidal/homicidal teenagers and their families. My understanding of Affect Theory comes primarily from what I have read here on BOL.

My question comes from reading Dr. Nathanson's Conversation -- I am interested in learning more about whether or not you feel that talk therapy can produce changes in "hardware," and where "firmware" fits into this change. You stated that, "you can see that most of what we do with medication involves hardware, while verbal psychotherapy always involves software." My understanding is that, just as medication produces changes in biochemistry which allows the formation of new scripts (I believe this is the correct term to use here) verbal therapy can produce changes in scripts which "rewire" the body's biochemical responses. I see this as a simultaneous achievement, with neither "causing" the other. How is "firmware" effected by these changes? You said that firmware resembles ROM chips which "cannot be altered without desroying the mechanism." Can you discuss this in greater detail?

I have found your theory to be fascinating and I feel that it really helps me to understand why Gestalt Therapy is such an effective modality. Thank you for providing this forum! -- Suzy

• Where and why therapy works by Don Nathanson, 6/19/97