Understanding Memory Reconsolidation

Bruce Ecker

Extensive research by neuroscientists since the late 1990s has found that the brain is innately equipped with a potent process, known as memory reconsolidation, that can fundamentally modify or erase a targeted, specific learning, even complex human emotional learnings formed subcortically, outside of awareness (Pine, Mendelsohn, & Dudai, 2014; for reviews see, e.g, Agren, 2014; Reichelt & Lee, 2013). Such learnings are found to underlie and drive most of the problems and symptoms addressed in psychotherapy and counseling (Toomey & Ecker, 2007; Ecker & Toomey, 2008), so the relevance and value of memory reconsolidation for the clinical field are profound.

Bruce Ecker, MA, LMFT, is co-originator of Coherence Therapy, co-director of the Coherence Psychology Institute, and coauthor of Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation; the Coherence Therapy Practice Manual and Training Guide; and Depth Oriented Brief Therapy. He is in private practice in Oakland, California, gives clinical trainings internationally, and has taught graduate courses for many years. Clarifying how lasting, transformational change takes place is the theme of Bruce Ecker’s clinical career. He has contributed extensive innovations in concepts and methods of experiential psychotherapy, and has driven the clinical field’s recognition of how memory reconsolidation research translates into new capabilities of consistent therapeutic effectiveness and psychotherapy integration. For more information, visit:

www.CoherenceInstitute.org.

Special Memory Reconsolidation Issue of The Neuropsychotherapist

Features

UNDERSTANDING MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION
Bruce Ecker corrects some of the most common misconceptions about memory reconsolidation and its application in clinical practice.
Bruce Ecker

DEEP RELEASE FOR BODY AND SOUL: MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION AND THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
A vivid case study illustrating the memory reconsolidation process in action with the Alexander Technique.
Robin Ticic and Elise Kushner

PROGRESSIVE COUNTING FACILITATES MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION
Progressive counting is a recently developed trauma treatment technique that facilitates memory reconsolidation. Kymberly Lasser and Ricky Greenwald take us through the process using a case example.
Kymberly Lasser & Ricky Greenwald

HOW ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY CHANGES DEEP EMOTIONAL LEARNINGS
Energy psychology is a technique of tapping acupuncture points while exploring distressing memories. David Feinstein explains how this somatic intervention capitalises on memory reconsolidation to resolve traumatic memories
David Feinstein

MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION IN NLP
Bruce Ecker describes how the therapeutic reconsolidation process can be utilised for consistently effective psychotherapy across a range of modalities. Here Bruce looks at a case example using neuro-linguistic programming.
Bruce Ecker

Hard copy book now available from Amazon.com:

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.