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ForwardRescripting Trauma Memories with Memory Reconsolidation: Protocols for Updating Implicit Beliefs and Patterns
Abstract
Reprocessing traumatic memories can be a tough task, due to the stubborn persistence of painful emotions, thoughts, and patterns woven into the memory at both conscious and subconscious levels. Fortunately, neuroscience has revealed how psychotherapists can more effectively help their clients reprocess traumatic memories by harnessing the mechanisms of memory reconsolidation. Memory reconsolidation refers to the brain's inherent ability to update a memory network with new information when the person encounters a new experience that is emotionally significant enough for the brain to change the memory’s meaning, context, and associations.This webinar will explore the phenomenon of memory reconsolidation and how psychotherapists can utilize it to create experiences that help their clients rescript trauma narratives, repair attachment wounds, and foster a positive post-trauma identity. Drawing from practical examples and research, this workshop will encompass a range of evidence-based protocols that therapists can employ to facilitate memory reconsolidation and enhance other therapeutic tools they may use. Interventions will will emphasize the importance of fostering a safe and supportive therapeutic environment where clients feel empowered to revisit their memories in a controlled manner while simultaneously integrating new experiences that align with the client’s most deeply held values.
Furthermore, case studies and video examples will demonstrate how therapists can collaborate with their clients to elicit corrective experiences that utilize the client’s imagination, ideas, and resources. The webinar will explore why collaborative interventions may result in more emotionally significant experiences and increase the client’s sense of agency in producing longer lasting change. This webinar is a valuable resource for psychotherapists seeking to deepen their understanding of memory reconsolidation and its practical application in trauma therapy. By learning how to harness this powerful process, therapists can offer their clients a better pathway to rescripting traumatic memories and forging healthier, more resilient patterns of thought and behavior.
Potential to Distress: Yes
This webinar was originally presented in June 2024
Target Audience
Intermediate
Learning Objectives
- Explain recent neuroscience discoveries regarding memory reconsolidation and their clinical implications for treating trauma
- Describe the steps of the RECON protocol, an imaginal rescripting technique to help clients reduce distress related to memories of traumatic events
- List at least two ways to help clients avoid re-traumatization while reviewing traumatic memories
- Discuss at least two strengths and two limitations of the research on memory reconsolidation in trauma treatment
Presenter: Courtney Armstrong, LPC
Presenter Bio: Courtney Armstrong is a licensed professional counselor in Tennessee who has specialized in treating trauma and grief for over 25 years. She is the author of Transforming Traumatic Grief (2011) The Therapeutic “Aha!” (2015), and Rethinking Trauma Treatment: Attachment, Memory Reconsolidation, and Resilience (2019). She has also written articles for the Psychotherapy Networker, The Science of Psychotherapy, and Counseling Today and has contributed book chapters to several professional books on grief and trauma.
Graduating from the University of New Orleans in 1995 with a master’s degree in counselor education, Courtney began her career working with inner city youth in New Orleans who were dealing with complex trauma compounded by systemic racism, poverty, and gang violence.
Determined to learn as much as she could about effective treatment for trauma, she completed a post-graduate certificate program in Traumatic Stress Studies from the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute in Boston and is also trained in clinical hypnosis, biofeedback, and EMDR with Somatic Attachment Focus.
Courtney transitioned from counseling children to counseling adults in psychiatric hospitals where she led partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs. Her interest in the intersection between trauma and chronic health issues led her to work in a primary care physician’s office for several years and open her own private group practice with a variety of practitioners offering evidence-based mind-body therapy approaches.
Courtney was so impressed with the results her clients were getting with clinical hypnosis, that she became certified as an Approved Consultant by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) and founded the Institute for Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy. In the year 2020, she developed a successful national training program in clinical hypnosis for the US Veterans Healthcare Administration and serves on the ASCH education and training committee where she received an award of merit in 2023."
Available Credit
- 3.00 APAThe International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
- 3.00 ASWB ACEThe International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 3.00 continuing education credits.
- 3.00 ISSTD Certificate ProgramThis program is eligible for 3.00 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program. No certificate of completion is generated for this type of credit.
Price
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