Resource States as described by Professor Gordon Emmerson in his Resource State Personality Theory, exist physically in our brains as neural pathways.

Our States are our Resources, they are our personality parts, and as such can be equated to neural pathways that develop the ability to change and be rewired with neuroplasticity. Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain. Neurogenesis is crucial when an embryo is developing, but also continues in certain brain regions after birth and throughout our lifespan.

Brain cells use neurogenesis during normal brain development when the immature brain first begins to process sensory information through early growth (developmental plasticity and plasticity of learning and memory).When we are born and in our toddler years our brain grows exponentially. As a neuron (think of this as a cell much like a tree matures it sends out many branches of axons (responsible for sending messages out) and dendrites (capable of receiving information) increasing the number of synaptic contacts as it lays the specific synaptic connections – neuron to neuron.

Neurons have a membrane that is designed to send information to other cells. The axon and dendrites are specialized structures designed to transmit and receive information. The connections between cells are called synapses. Neurons release chemicals known as neurotransmitters into these synapses to communicate with other neurons.

An infant of three will have approximately 1500 synapses per neuron (Gopnick et al. 1999), whereas the adult brain has only 7,500 due to synaptic pruning, where unused connections are deleted. Unused sections are also available to neurogenesis as an adaptive mechanism to compensate for lost function and/or to maximize remaining functions in the event of brain injury. It is our experiences, which determine which connections will be strengthened and which will be pruned. Those that are activated frequently will be preserved; neurons must have a purpose to survive. Those neurons without purpose die off through a process call apoptosis much the same way we prune our roses when they are not growing.

Since our brains are neuroplastic, repeating behaviour over and over again allows our brain to develop and connect in such a way that it will create a physical neural pathway. This is exactly how our Resource states are developed - mostly in childhood. Understanding this developmental process is at the heart of Resource Therapy Theory of Personality. Knowing that our Resource States, our personality parts, are physically wired within our brains allows us to understand the source of symptoms of emotional and mental discomfort more effectively and restore normality as we activate and reattach neural pathways to normal function.

Resource Therapy works directly with the amgydala and our brains library, the hippocampus. Neurons can be strengthened and rewired according to Resource Therapy Theory of personality. The good news is we can rewire our brains with emotional processing therapies like Resource Therapy quickly, effectively and safely.