Memory reconsolidation (MR)—a foundational process with the potential, if properly understood, to consistently bring about the kind of transformational change that we look for in the lives of clients—is the subject of this book. Featured in this issue is Bruce Ecker, one of the foremost experts in applying techniques that fulfil the neurobiological requirements to achieve MR in clinical practice. In fact all of the authors in this issue are experts in their respective fields, demonstrating the unifying nature of MR in such diverse therapies as the Alexander technique, energy psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and progressive counting. Understanding the biological basis of our memory and how it can be modified is the key to effective therapeutic change, especially when emotional memories are driving unwanted symptoms.The content of this special issue has been previously published in The Neuropsychotherapist or the International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy.
Unlocking the Emotional Brain offers psychotherapists and counselors methods at the forefront of clinical and neurobiological knowledge for creating profound change regularly in day-to-day practice.
As little as 10 years ago, it was believed that memory went from short to long term via one consolidation practice that made that memory intractable. Since then, research has shown that long-term memories can be activated, modified, and reconsolidated in their new form. This research indicates that memories are more dynamic than once believed. And understanding how this process works and helping people to redefine established memories can be clinically useful if those memories lead to problems, as is the case in post-traumatic stress disorder. This book provides a comprehensive overview of research on memory reconsolidation; what this has to say about the formation, storage, and changeability of memory; and the potential applications of this research to treating clinical disorders. Presents both neuroscience and psychological research on memory reconsolidation Discusses what findings mean for understanding memory formation, storage, and retrieval Includes treatment applications of these findings
A comprehensive, multidisciplinary review, Neural Plasticity and Memory: From Genes to Brain Imaging provides an in-depth, up-to-date analysis of the study of the neurobiology of memory. Leading specialists share their scientific experience in the field, covering a wide range of topics where molecular, genetic, behavioral, and brain imaging techniq
This edited volume provides an overview the state-of-the-art in the field of cognitive neuroscience of memory consolidation. In a number of sections, the editors collect contributions of leading researchers . The topical focus lies on current issues of interest such as memory consolidation including working and long-term memory. In particular, the role of sleep in relation to memory consolidation will be addressed. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of cognitive neuroscience but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.
Creating safety, hope, and secure attachment to transform traumatic memories. What makes trauma therapy effective? The answers might surprise you. While therapists have been bombarded with brain science, hundreds of new models, and pressure to use evidence-based techniques, research has demonstrated that the therapeutic relationship ultimately predicts therapy outcomes. This is especially true for traumatized clients. But, what kind of therapeutic relationship? Forming a secure therapeutic alliance with traumatized clients is tricky. How do you help clients trust you after they’ve been abused, betrayed, or exploited? How do you instill hope and convince clients who’ve been devastated by loss to believe that a better life is possible? In this accessible guide, Courtney Armstrong distills discoveries from attachment theory, brain science, and post-traumatic growth into practical strategies you can use to: 1) build trust and a secure therapeutic relationship; 2) transform traumatic memories into stories of triumph and courage; and 3) help clients cultivate resilience and a positive post-trauma identity. Packed with dozens of scripts, step-by-step worksheets, and inspiring client stories, this book gives you tools for each phase of the trauma therapy process and shows you how to: Engage and motivate clients based on their attachment style Manage trauma-related dissociation, anxiety, and anger Transform traumatic memories so they no longer haunt your client Work with different types of trauma, from sexual abuse to traumatic grief Evoke inner resources for healing and positive emotional states Counter compassion fatigue and burnout so youcan thrive as a therapist Merely talking about a traumatic event is not enough because the parts of the brain where traumatic, implicit memories are stored don’t understand words. Heartfelt, relational experiences catalyze brain change and buffer the impact of trauma. In this book, Armstrong demonstrates that neuroscience is validating what therapists have suspected all along: the brain changes through the heart.
Memories represent a means through which we bring to bear past experience on current processing in order to respond adaptively and predict the future. One process that reflects this utility is reconsolidation. When memories are retrieved, they sometimes return into a labile state so that they can be updated and consolidated anew. This represents a potential therapeutic window for illnesses in which memory processing has gone awry; that is, it might be possible to render memories labile and excise the aberrant and maladaptive. In this chapter, we discuss this opportunity with regard to serious mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, and drug addiction. Although the preclinical data are promising, that preclinical potential has yet to be realized. We discuss some of the ethical implications of memory erasure as well as some of the practical impediments to this approach.
The idea that memories are immutable after consolidation has been challenged. The reconsolidation process offers the possibility of modifying previously stored information. This process has been described in different animal models and in human memory paradigms. This chapter revisits findings obtained with a declarative memory paradigm developed in our laboratory. Our research demonstrates the existence of the reconsolidation process for declarative memory, characterizes its boundary conditions, and studies its functions. The study of this process in a memory type that is a hallmark of humans supports the idea that some mechanisms are conserved across evolution. Moreover, this profound description of the features of reconsolidation affords the opportunity to apply our current knowledge to the development of new therapies for traumatic memories, with the goal of modifying undesirable memories.
Research on reconsolidation has demonstrated that consolidated memories may again enter states of transient instability following reactivation from which they must restabilize in order to persist, contradicting the previously dominant view describing memory and its associated plasticity mechanisms as progressively and irreversibly declining with time. We are now witness to an exciting time as diverse fields begin embracing a position, long-held in cognitive psychology, that recognizes memory as a principally dynamic process. This chapter discusses the history of this exciting field, which has been “discovered” twice. Today, there has been an explosion of research on the topic and demonstrations of reconsolidation across species, behavioral tasks, and amnesic treatments.
Memory reconsolidation is the process that serves to restabilize a memory that has been destabilized through memory retrieval. This retrieval-induced plasticity has been extensively studied in the hippocampus, among other neural loci. A focus on hippocampal memory reconsolidation, for contextual fear, pure contextual, and spatial memories, reveals interesting constraints on when a retrieved memory undergoes reconsolidation. Moreover, the emergence of dissociable mechanisms of hippocampal contextual fear memory consolidation and reconsolidation has allowed the demonstration that reconsolidation serves to update both the strength and the content of hippocampal memories. This provides compelling evidence that, at least in the hippocampus, reconsolidation exists in order to modify memories. However, whether or not these hippocampal findings can be generalized to nonhippocampal memories remains to be determined.
