Long Ago and Far Away: New Approaches to Treating Traumatic Memory

Historically, resolving traumatic memory work has always emphasized the importance of “going there,” of re-experiencing the feelings connected to the event.  For some clients, that prospect feels even more intimidating than surviving the original abuse.  Other clients want to “get it out” as quickly as possible, hoping they will find the relief they’ve been longing for if they just tell the story.  But often they are disappointed when they find that talking about it does not bring long-term relief.

Over the past twenty years, neuroscience research has transformed our notions of memory work.  Newer ways of understanding traumatic memory focus less on traumatic events and more on the nonverbal physical and emotional responses that keep trauma ‘alive’ for decades after the events are over.

Using mindfulness-based interventions adapted from EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, this webinar will demonstrate simple, practical interventions for addressing the living legacy of effects rather than the events.  Underlying this way of working is an assumption that it is less important to know what happened than to feel that ‘it’ is over and we are finally safe.

Newer cutting-edge approaches to memory have different goals than earlier techniques.  Their end in mind is to reconstruct the clients’ relationship to the events so that they finally feel long ago and far away.  By addressing the effects of those events, we can help clients transform feelings of inadequacy and shame into a sense of “I survived, and I’m safe now.”

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate research findings on the encoding of traumatic memories
• Differentiate the effects of implicit versus explicit traumatic memory
• Discuss differences between remembering, reprocessing, and ‘repairing’
• Identify 3 interventions for resolving implicit trauma memories
• Identify 2 interventions for resolving explicit memory

Target audience:

• Addiction and Eating Disorders Professionals
• Case Managers
• Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists