Bruce Ecker, Sara Bridges – What the Brain Needs for Transformational Change: Using Memory Reconsolidation in Daily Clinical Practice

Outline

• Different types of change and memory reconsolidation:

Counteractive

Transformational

• Transformational change therapies

Common therapeutic factors across diverse approaches

Permanence of transformational change

• Memory deconsolidation and reconsolidation

History and research

• Emotional learnings

Nonverbal, implicit structure

Schemas and their self-protective function

• Impact of competing new learning

Brain circuits involved

Challenges of incremental learning and change

• Schema and implicit memory erasure

Non-reactivation

Symptom cessation

Effortless permanence

• Change mechanisms and sequences across therapeutic approaches
• Process for schema erasure

Reactivation

Guided contradictory experience

Juxtaposition with target schema

• Preparation for intervention

Symptom identification

Retrieving underlying schema

Finding contradictory experiences

• Nonspecific common therapeutic factors
• Verifying therapeutic outcome

Dissolution of schema

Evaluating presence of multiple schemas

• Clinical case examples of transformational process

Therapist factors

Potential complications

• Discovery techniques

Symptom deprivation

Overt statements

Sentence completion

• Summary and resources