Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation Paperback – Illustrated, 19 October 2012

Phenomenal! This is one of my favorite therapy books that I have read so far. There were many examples to explain their theory, and the authors cited so many supporting studies. I love that different modalities can use coherence therapy , and I appreciate the online resource for more case studies.It’s wonderful to hear that even if a belief seems “irrational,” the belief does make its own kind of sense. (E.g. “If I deliberately fail at everything, I can prove to my father what a terrible parent he was, and take revenge on him.”) I find it validating that our stubborn thought patterns serve some logical purpose—they’re not just random idiosyncrasies in your mind.Despite how simple coherence therapy sounds, I was glad that the book showed us cases where therapeutic progress was slow and difficult. We may indeed take a long time to discover the core negative beliefs, and even longer to unearth the other related core beliefs, as well as to seek out their contradictory evidence.I liked the distinction between counteractive vs transformative therapies, and the caveats on when counteractive methods would be more appropriate. CBT is deemed counteractive, but it still works for many clients, perhaps because, during the thought challenge process, you can expose yourself to the emotional experiencing of two contradictory beliefs at the same time. CBT isn’t always intellectual and cognitive; there are ways to enhance the emotional power of “cognitive thoughts” too, such as asking the client to visualize a specific incident or person in their life, imagine the sensory details, and make the image as vivid and real as possible.In fact, I think it would be beneficial to avoid using labels for the different therapeutic modalities, and just focus on what you are actually doing. It seems that a lot of people have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the term CBT; but CBT shares similarities with some other modalities. For instance, EFT (emotion-focused therapy), CBT, existential, and narrative therapy all involve questioning our core, maladaptive beliefs, and developing more helpful and empowering beliefs.There is a significant overlap between EFT and coherence therapy too, where both posit that our emotions are informative and adaptive (though some are overlearned responses), rather than nonsensical and arbitrary. Rational-emotive-behavioral therapy (REBT) also talks about appropriate negative emotions, so REBT doesn’t see all negative feelings as unreasonable either.Realistically, I believe that most therapists wouldn’t rigidly adhere to any one belief system. One could specialize in CBT, but still agree with things in other modalities that are seen as contradictory to CBT. A CBT therapist could believe that “irrational thoughts” all have a rational basis. For example, a hypothetical person, Xavier, feels like they are a complete failure, which is not factually true, but they feel this way because they just encountered a setback in a domain that they care deeply about; and as Xavier’s self-esteem is tied to their accomplishments in this field, of course they would be miserable and think in a devastating way. Or, a different hypothetical person, Reuben, may also feel like a total failure, because they are surrounded by friends and family who have high-wage, prestigious jobs, and so when Reuben doesn’t get accepted into med school, it’s understandable that they would feel unworthy, due to social comparison, and perhaps because of a belief in their family and peer circle that career prestige and achievement are everything.Everybody’s story is different, but Reuben and Xavier’s cases are examples of how a person’s belief, though factually untrue, can still make logical sense when you examine its background context. In fact, this situation reminds me of the difference between taking a sentence literally versus taking it metaphorically or hyperbolically. People often make absolute statements, e.g. “No one writes physical letters nowadays,” but of course, on a literal level, some folks still write paper letters to each other. We simply need to listen to the person’s statement as reflecting an emotional truth, rather than some objective fact. For instance, the person could just be expressing sorrow for the “lost art of letter writing.”It was helpful to read the cases in the book where the therapist turned an intellectual exercise into an emotional, experiential one, such as by asking the client to hone in on what they are feeling in their body, asking them how they are feeling in the moment, encouraging them to vividly imagine an important scene, etc. I do believe that the intellectual and the emotional are not an either-or, all-or-nothing question, though. You could be partially intellectual but also partially emotional in the session. Or, you could be feeling some emotion, but at a lower intensity, where you display more subtle bodily cues. (So instead of crying visibly, a client might look a bit tense around the shoulders, and stare at the floor more often than usual.)In addition, I don’t agree with some therapists that intellectual insights are completely useless. These cognitive insights may be less powerful than insights gained during more emotional moments, but intellectual/ cognitive discoveries still kick-start a journey of change for the better. (I’m not saying that the authors of this book think intellectual discoveries are completely useless; I was just referring to some therapists I met personally.) I understand that sometimes, we know something rationally and intellectually, but we believe something else emotionally, which can be frustrating. However, I argue that knowing something on a rational level, is still much better than not knowing it at all. The cognitive, rational side can be a brake to restrain us from doing unwise behaviors. And a weak brake is better than no brake.Another part of the book I loved, was when the authors addressed attachment theory, explaining that not all problematic beliefs stem from attachment insecurities, and that securely attached people could develop unhelpful beliefs too. This is a much more complex, multi-faceted, and believable view of human behavior.One thing I didn’t like that much about the book, is that it’s written in relatively dense language, where sentences are longer and filled with more academic words than necessary. I get that this book is for therapists rather than for the lay audience, but they could still write in a simpler, more accessible style. Even experts in the field would have an easier time reading the text if the sentences were shorter and the language simpler.Furthermore, it would be great if the authors wrote “they,” “their,” “them,” instead of “he or she,” “his or her,” “him or her,” since not everyone uses he or she pronouns, and nonbinary people do exist. (I get that this book was published a number of years ago, where social awareness of nonbinary folks and gender neutral pronouns was even more lacking than it is than today. But still, it's frustrating.)On the other hand, I was glad to see a same-gender romantic relationship in one of the cases. It can be alienating for a gay person (such as myself) to read a therapy book where all romantic relationships in the text are between opposite gender partners. So this inclusion of a non-heterosexual couple was a relief to see.All in all, a marvelous, inspiring book!

My review about the book will be done when I get the refund and buy it through kindle-usa. It appears interesting. But my review here is basically to alert anyone that buys the PHYSICAL copy of this book. THE LETTERS ARE SMALL. If you usually don't need glasses to read paperback books, you will for the size of the letters in this one. Get the kindle version.PORTUGUÊS: aconselho a comprar a versão em kindle, pois a copia fisica é dificil de ler. Ficou evidente que o editor quiz economizar no papel, mas o preço por este livro é realmente elevado independentemente do formato.

Memory reconsolidation and the possibility of changing how memory reconsolidation occurs is the centerpiece of this book, which aims to validate intervention into the process of memory reconsolidation as the underlying basis of all successful change processes, in which it does a good job in the eyes of this non-scientist.The examples of Coherence Therapy (the model of therapy the authors have developed that is specifically centered on using memory reconsolidation) are useful and revealing, as are the analyses of the presence of memory reconsolidation as the actual mechanism in case studies of a number of other methodologies. One thing I appreciated in the latter is seeing more of the variety of ways in which memory reconsolidation interventions can happen.I appreciate that the number of ways to create useful changes is so specifically stated to be open-ended, and that the model of change proposed is useful in discussions across specific techniques.I would have liked more specifics on ways to elicit implicit learnings. Sentence completion and symptom deprivation are the ones that come to mind, but there is no list with examples, which would be ideal.The associated website has quite a bit of free and paid material. After reading Unlocking the Emotional Brain I paid the $45 for the 83 page manual (8.5x11 pages). It is very good, with clearly and concisely organized information for those who want to know more.I suspect, despite the enthusiasm of the authors for memory reconsolidation as a universal mechanism, there is more going on than that, but it seems to be a key piece of the puzzle of why we seem so adamantine in resisting even beneficial personal change.After several decades of investigating personal self-development I find nothing I object to, only some areas in which I would extend beyond certain assumptions implicit in the presentation (the 1:1 model of fixing problems and the extent to which the work applies, limited to making overt symptoms go away) or add other considerations, such as bodily engagement as part of the change process. This is done to the extent of using Gendlin's felt sense and acknowledging that EMDR seems to facilitate uncovering implicit learnings or decisions, but I believe more would be possible and this could be a fruitful area of investigation.

This book is ground breaking for Therapists. the research into the neurology of Implicit and Explicit memory reveals the Brain's rules for change no matter what techniques a therapist may use. It should be seriously taken into consideration by any therapist open to the meeting of psychology and neurology. There is a full review of this new book on Amazon.uk written by Graham Dawes. Excellent reading and exciting finds.

This is a book for which I have been waiting a number of years now, perhaps before the authors even thought of writing it. At its core is Memory Reconsolidation, the process by which a memory can be changed.The possibility of being able to change memories has an obvious relevance to psychotherapy. The beginnings of human research on this aspect of memory inspired many media misrepresentations, as in the film 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', where you get to consign your ex to the it-never-happened dimension. This book tells you how it really works.Our experience becomes memory, but it isn't just filed away on cerebral shelves, dusty and inactive. It informs what we do (and what we think and feel) in the present. Our memories hold all that we know about anything, whether that be about ourselves, about other people, about how things work in the world or about how to ride a bicycle. This is as true of things we are aware of as it is of things we aren't. We know that we know how to ride a bicycle, but we don't consciously know enough about how we do it to provide an accurate verbal description. Most 'psychological issues' derive from things we have learnt but aren't aware we have learnt. We might be aware of the experience from which we learnt, but still not be aware of what it was we learnt through that experience, nor of how that learning is affecting us today.In that sense, memory is not our past but our present. You find yourself in a familiar context and you know what to do, even if you don't know you know what to do, and even if what you do isn't what you would intentionally prefer to be doing. Memory runs the show. From that perspective, memory is the platform on which psychotherapy operates. Consequently, it is useful to know how memory works - and this book brings you up to date.Having said that, until recently, memory science had little to offer the project of personal change. The way memory was thought to work appeared to severely limit all efforts at change. The mainstream view was that when experience moved from short-term memory to long-term memory it was 'consolidated' through the mechanism of protein synthesis locking the synapses together. And that was pretty much that. 'Memories are forever' was the message.That's not the most hopeful foundation for change when those memories hold the very patterns (of thought, feeling and behaviour) which trouble and perturb our present. Only within the last dozen years has neuroscience recognized the existence of a process which brings a memory out of the consolidated (fixed) state and renders it open to updating and to being reconsolidated - differently. This is the way out.The book's authors call this the 'therapeutic reconsolidation process' (TRP). Their proposition is that it is this process which underlies all transformative change, whether inside or outside of therapy, and regardless of whether the process, itself, is recognized (as, of course, it wasn't by memory science until 2000). In other words, they claim that all therapies, all change methods, in so far as they occasionally accomplish transformative change (as opposed to helping people to cope better with their psychological problems) do so through the TRP process - regardless of the very different, even competing, theories and methods held by each of the psychotherapy schools. On that basis, they see theTRP as being a unifying foundation on which the whole psychotherapy field could be integrated.There is some serendipity here (or synchronicity, if you are feeling mystical) in that two of the authors, Ecker and Hulley, when developing their Coherence Therapy model, almost twenty years ago, found much the same process, on the basis of clinical empiricism, as did neuroscientists on the basis of research experiment. The synergy of this convergence has, in this book, enabled the authors both to take the reader through the science underlying reconsolidation and to provide an explication of the process which is far better than any I came across in the scientific literature. A brilliant exposition.At the heart of the book, though, is how the science can be applied to psychotherapy. Here the authors furnish a great deal of detail through case histories, both as a way of illustrating the process and, in part two of the book, by including four extensive cases in which colleagues report on their use of the therapeutic reconsolidation process. In all, the kinds of problems addressed in the book cover a wide range, including: low self-esteem, love obsession, chronic underachieving, stage fright (which turns out to be an example of PTSD), attachment issues, depression, panic attacks, withdrawing from emotional intimacy, guilt, compulsive drinking, compulsive eating and auditory hallucinations.We also gain a substantial introduction to the methods of Coherence Therapy. As its name suggests, the concept of coherence is central, and it proves to be a very fruitful one. Essentially, it is that people's experience makes sense. It might not feel that way when, as an adult, we feel 'disempowered' by authority figures, or every romantic relationship seems to sluice down the same drain, or when any particular pattern of thought, feeling or behaviour feels out of our control. We cannot understand why we are plagued by such things. But, according to Coherence Therapy, the symptom of which we complain makes sense. Either it is an unconscious strategy to prevent something worse happening (or, more precisely, something we once, unconsciously, decided would be worse) or it is the unfortunate consequence (i.e., side-effect) of such a protective strategy. We make perfect sense; it's just that we don't know half of the sense that we make. That's why we can feel we (our thoughts, feelings or behaviour) are out of control. This coherence viewpoint constitutes a high-level reframing of the psychotherapy enterprise.That would be more than enough, in any book. However, it should be mentioned that, for those in the psychotherapy field, the authors also bring conceptual clarity to two of its current debates: the attachment debate and the common factors debate. But that is icing on an already estimable cake.