It is so satisfying as a therapist to be able offer therapies that bring about profound change that is effortless to maintain! I am talking mainly about analysis and coherence therapy but there are other psychotherapies that facilitate the profound change that we now call Memory Reconsolidation.  In the organisation I belong to, we have a huge depth of experience and know-how with analysis but it is only by reference to the latest neuroscience that the therapy became evidence based.

However, that understanding of the neuroscience and how and when memory reconsolidation takes place has led us to a critical insight. There is no one big thing to unlock. By providing the safe environment to bring all sorts of old fears and embarrassments to the surface, we allow them to bump into a countering modern reality and they simply dissolve. This is memory reconsolidation in action. In analysis it’s often spontaneous; in coherence therapy it is more of a guided process, but however you look at it, it is a natural process, a built in healing mechanism – but one that requires activating in therapy.

In the past, this collection of minor but significant hurts has been called cumulative trauma. There is no one big thing to unlock – though sometimes the collection of hurts is not at all minor. In those cases the work can take a bit longer, but the underlying healing process is the same.