What is the EMDR Therapy Process? – Part 5
What are Memory Networks?
When it comes time to reprocess memories you will return to your Master Treatment Plan from Phase 1, choose your first Presenting Complaint and create a Reprocessing Plan for that complaint. For each Presenting Complaint you will make a list of as many specific past memories as you can find where you had that experience going all the way back to the first time you had the experience. It is an important timeline to really clean out the memory networks that drive the Presenting Complaint
What are Memory Networks?
Think of it this way. Every experience you have colors how you see yourself, others and circumstance. We have a ton of memories every day. Your brain actually knows how to reprocess memories spontaneously on its own. You have some difficult memories, that when you think of them, they do not have any charge physically or emotionally, and they do not bring up really upsetting thoughts. It just feels like an old memory, and it may have been difficult, but you may have gained valuable lessons, awareness or learning from it that you use in the future. (EMDR’s AIP Model (Adaptive Information Processing).
You have other memories that when you think of them you have distressing physical and/or emotional reaction to them and they bring up distressing thoughts or beliefs. Those memories the brain has not reprocessed yet. Something interfered. Sometimes that is because it was so overwhelming, or it kept happening over and over so the brain could not reprocess it. And you keep getting triggered by similar circumstances, sights, sounds, locations, smells, a tone of voice, a type of personality, and so on, because the memory has not yet reprocessed. This is what Dr. Shapiro discovered. And, then how to reprocess them memories so they are no longer driving current thoughts, and actions, emotions and sensation from a distressing perspective.
When we choose a Presenting issue from the Master Treatment Plan and create a plan for reprocessing the memories that contribute to the issue.
Past Prong: Past Memories
You will list past memories from present time back to when this Presenting Issue started. You won’t need to find all of them from the time the issue started to present time to clear out the pattern. But you will need to find memories representative through time to make sure the network of negative experiences clears out. If you have big gaps in time between memories it is likely that some of the memory networks will not be accessed and cleared during reprocessing.
Present Prong: Present Triggers
Present Prong - you will make a list of things that trigger you to experience that presenting issue. Ie: any time you get called to the boss’s office, any time you drive by a location where the issue occurred, any time you hear a particular song. A trigger is a part of a memory, ie: a sight, sound, location, tone of voice, an authority figure.
Making a list of Present Triggers is a way you will check to see if the negative memory networks were cleared out after reprocessing all the past memories. If you are still getting triggered after clearing all the past memories, there are still some memories that have not yet been processed. Memories of when you were triggered will be reprocessed.
Future Prong: Future Templates
Past Prong - For every trigger you list in the Present Prong you will do a Future Template to build in more adaptability. By building in more adaptability for the future you will have more resilience when challenges come up in life.
Once the plan is complete you will choose the youngest memory to reprocess. Why the youngest? Because it is the seed that planted the whole dysfunctional tree. It is very efficient to process the youngest first because once you start reprocessing your brain will spontaneously link into other memories with similar components (circumstances, locations, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, personality types and so on).
People usually want to target the most recent incident first. Mostly because you are not aware of how the past is actually driving the current experience. When you reprocess the earliest memory first, it will often change other memories in the list. This often makes later memories easier to reprocess since they will be less upsetting than when you started the plan. It is the most efficient way to resolve past memories.
Reprocessing more recent memories first is not very efficient since it is sitting on top of years of other memories. Often a recent memory will not clear completely because there are earlier memories that are informing the present memory in a maladaptive way.
For instance. Someone came to me once saying they were helping someone clear a recent experience of sexual abuse, but the memory would not clear. My question to them was, “Have they ever been sexually abused before?” The answer was yes, two other times. So, they went back and cleared the first time it happened and then the second. Once those two were done they were surprised that the most recent memory was now clear and did not need to be reprocessed.
I know this doesn’t make sense, but much of what I do does not make sense. When I did the things that made sense clients did not get change. Now I do what works.
My clients are often shocked that clearing earlier memories suddenly shows up as them handling things much differently in present time without even thinking about it. It just is easy, and in many cases, they didn’t even realize they were doing things differently until we evaluated what was changing after every reprocessing session.
If you have a severe history of abuse, neglect, etc., your therapist may use specialty protocols and interventions to take some charge out of a memory in parts to make it easier to reprocess the whole thing.