When we are able to access and move through our true emotions, and are given the right support so that that process can feel grounded and safe and rewarding, then during the moments that follow our brain is perfectly poised to transform in ways that are incredibly healing and liberating. In this video we will be looking at the science of that and explore why emotional processing can be used in the service of galvanizing neuroplasticity and producing lasting transformation. So let's dive in!
Hi I'm DrTori Olds and in this video I would like to try to explain why the emotional processing work done in AEDP, or Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, is so transformative from the perspective of what is likely happening in the brain, specifically as seen through the lens of something called memory reconsolidation. I will specifically be focusing on the flow of the model where the client is supported in deepening access to various aspects of emotional process or what are called the four states and I'll be describing why I believe the experience of moving through these four states is so likely to trigger memory reconsolidation and therefore transformational change. Now if you've watched any of my other videos you know that I talk about memory reconsolidation a lot.
If you haven't seen any of these videos you might want to pause and watch one specifically called memory reconsolidation. But in case you don't do that, I will just describe it very briefly here. If I had to outline what memory reconsolidation is about in one sentence, I would say that it is the process through which our deep, unconsciously held imprints, our patterns of neural wiring can be rewired.
But before describing the science of that, I want to describe why that rewiring matters. To me it comes down to this: when we are struggling psychologically, in most cases, it is because something healthy got unconsciously associated with, neurologically linked to, a sense of danger or shame. And when I say associated or linked, I mean quite literally kind of wired together.
As an example, you know how if you give a mouse an electric shock every time they hear a bell, the sound of a bell will be linked then to a fear response? That's a neurological link, such that the neurons that register the sound of the bell are now tied into the neurons that produce the fear response. In other words, cause the heart rate to go up and the mouse to run away, etc.
Those kinds of links are held in what's called implicit memory and when things are held in implicit memory we don't have to think about what something means, like what does the bell mean to me, we just hear the bell and the whole neural firing pattern gets triggered so that we can respond without thinking. While all of this is unconscious, we do call it learning because unconsciously something is being imprinted or learned. The mouse is learning to believe the bell is dangerous.
For humans, the word we tend to use for this phenomenon is emotional learning, or even sometimes: unconscious belief, or schema, or a mental model. Neuroscientists use the word "prediction" because these mental models are all about unconsciously predicting what's about to happen next and how I should respond. But whatever word we use, when we struggle psychologically, it's almost like neurons have become connected in a way that creates a little tangle.
Things have become tangled together that don't really belong together, the way a bell doesn't really belong with a fear response, similarly sadness doesn't really belong with anxiety, anger doesn't belong with shame. What does this have to do with psychology? Well again, when we struggle it's because something healthy got tangled up with associations of danger or shame and therefore some kind of defensive maneuver.
What kind of healthy things can take on these negative associations? Well our emotions for sure, but also things like asking for what we need or setting a boundary or letting someone come close to us. You know there are all sorts of healthy things that can be linked to danger or the prediction of some negative outcome and when they are, they will in turn be linked to some kind of defense, just like the mouse learning to run away.
It's funny because we use the word "pattern" in our daily lexicon, like "oh, that's my pattern" but I don't think we realize that underneath is actually a pattern of neural connections or neural firing. Neuroscientists call that a long-term potentiation pattern. Okay, but can we change long-term potentiation patterns?
Well, until 20 years ago scientists thought that we could not, until they discovered something called memory reconsolidation. Memory reconsolidation is a process through which the proteins that hold that pattern together become temporarily unlocked which allows that pattern to be opened to being changed or even dissolved altogether. That open state of learning lasts a few hours, at which point the proteins once again glue things back into place or reconsolidate the memory.
So it's probably already clear to you why this science is so important to any conversation around healing. Most of our issues are not because we aren't smart enough to know the truth, or make the right choices, or that we're just being too lazy to change. When we struggle, it's because something got deeply imprinted.
We have a long-term potentiation pattern or imprint that is tangling us up. Just as an example, you know many people say I have trouble knowing what I feel. That's not a choice on their part, it's because the arrival of emotion got tangled with anxiety and therefore with automatic numbing, let's say.
These kinds of imprints can be very disempowering, so the fact that we now know we can change them is huge. So what creates this window for change, what's called the "reconsolidation window. " Well, there are two requirements: one, you have to activate the original knowing or association.
You have to send electricity down that neural pathway, which you can do as simply as becoming conscious of it, and two, witness some evidence that proves that its prediction is wrong. In laboratory research they call that new contradictory evidence "the mismatch. " Sometimes we call it "the disconfirmation.
" When our original association or prediction is activated and then confronted with a disconfirmation, in other words, with evidence that proves the prediction is wrong, the proteins that held those particular neurons together unlock such that the association or prediction or unconscious belief can be permanently erased. I know that is a lot of science to throw at you, but the bottom line is that when we can activate or become aware of a deep emotional knowing like: "oh, if I let myself be angry I'll turn into my rage-aholic father," while simultaneously reflecting on an experience that disconfirms that association, like "oh, I did just touch into my anger and actually stayed really grounded and clear-headed through the entire process. " That moment of kind of surprise unlocks memory reconsolidation.
In other words, it allows for a very deep form of neuroplasticity, such that the brain can finally let go of basically the fear conditioning it's been holding onto. Okay, so what does this conversation about memory consolidation have to do with AEDP? Well, because I believe AEDP is so transformative, perhaps in large part, because the process is set up in a way that makes memory reconsolidation very likely to occur.
Certainly in terms of our expectations around whether it's safe to know or share our emotions, which we'll talk about in this video, but then perhaps around all sorts of other emotional learnings and beliefs as well, which I will hopefully be making another video on soon. Now set aside therapy for just a moment, I will say that in truth we have experiences that contradict our unconscious expectations all the time, but for our brain to take in that fact and update its reality accordingly, in other words, for us to have the mismatch experience: one, we have to be emotionally regulated, which in AEDP we are in a way that we usually aren't in real life when these places get triggered, and two, we must really notice the contradiction. We must notice the contrast between the expectation and the reality of what is happening.
This is why Fosha says it isn't enough for people to have a healing experience, they have to notice that they had it. Now interestingly, Fosha made that comment long before we were all talking about memory reconsolidation. It's like she had a clinical intuition about it before we knew the science, but because she had that insight, I think the way she designed the model just makes memory reconsolidation very likely to unfold.
So let me remind you of how she designed the model and then we can link that to this conversation. Okay, so AEDP works through a four-state progression. In state one, the client comes in with whatever stuckness or distress they are bringing to the table.
If I could use the imagery from before I'd say they come up tangled up in their tangled spot. Now, as a therapist helps them get detangled, for instance from shame, or anxiety, or from their defenses, or states of overwhelm, then it is possible to move from state 1 to state 2, where the deeper authentic emotions underneath are accessed. In state 2, the client is supported in deeply moving through whatever wave of emotion is present.
Now, for reasons we described in the last video, that movement through one's deep authentic emotion is often an utterly new experience. Why? Because people are so used to existing in state one.
In other words, either not touching their emotions much at all or if they do touch into some emotion, it being laced with shame or anxiety, right, the things that we got tangled up with, such that it will likely just feel bad. However, when we can finally be with pure emotion in a way that is all about connecting more deeply to ourselves and another person, it really feels wonderful. In fact, after moving through core affect, what emerges is state 3, where we experience all these amazing feelings such as joy, pride, lightness, gratitude, you know, feeling moved, or open.
Fosha calls these emotions the transformational affects and in AEDP, these emotions, these positive feelings that follow on the heels of our core affect, are given just as much attention and time to be mindfully processed as well. This is done during what is called "metaprocessing. " Let me give you an example of what metaprocessing work might look like.
"So how are you feeling now? " "Now, I'm feeling, gosh, so much relief. " "Okay, just stay with that relief, your body shifts, huh?
" "Yeah, it's like I can breathe, like something really deeply shifted. " "Well, let's stay with that now too. Are you willing to just notice the shift, to sort of inhabit it?
" "Yeah, it just feels really good. " What kind of good, like what are you feeling inside? " "I don't know, I just find myself sitting taller.
It's like very open through my chest. " "So just stay with the taller and open and see what that's like. Is there an emotion with that?
" "Yeah, I think it's pride. I'm a little embarrassed to say that, but that's what it feels like. " "Oh gosh, I hope we can make space for that because I'm actually feeling some pride myself, like proud of us, in a way, because we really did something together, which just strikes me as really beautiful.
What's that like to hear me say? " "Yeah, you know that's really moving to think about, just makes me feel really warmly toward you. I'm really grateful" and on and on.
You know, when I'm teaching my students about metaprocessing the positive emotions in this way, they always ask, "okay, but how long do you just explore how good it feels to be in therapy, or really to be healing" and I tell them well just as long as the client is still noticing things to describe next. There's no need to rush the process. It's a deep exploration, one that will largely center on emotions being explored in the body, but can also include new reflections and insights.
Either way, there's no reason to rush this piece, in fact, it can take a good chunk of the session. Now, in a moment we'll talk about what this has to do with memory reconsolidation, but first let me point out this piece of work is perhaps what makes AEDP stand out from other emotion focused models. In other words, while AEDP has made many contributions to our field, the technique of metaprocessing is perhaps the most unique.
In most therapies, the moment the client feels better it's like "okay, what other problem do you want to work on next. " But then this huge opportunity is missed to not only enjoy some well-earned pleasure but also to get the full healing benefit. So when I'm teaching this to my students, I don't care what kind of therapy they're doing, the moment there is a shift for the better it should be explored.
Sometimes I have this image of clients swimming through their emotions but then suddenly landing on this beautiful island. Sometimes I even describe that to them. I tell them, look, you've worked hard to arrive at this new place, you don't have to just quickly leave it.
Why not really explore it. You know, what can you see from here? What can you feel?
What can you do now that didn't seem possible before? You know like what is it like to be you from here? Why is it important to extend this moment?
Well, because it's so ripe for disconfirmations and therefore mismatch experiences. After all, arriving at this wonderful new island is not what people's unconscious brains would have predicted upon diving into the water of their emotions. In fact, the prediction might have been something like: "I'll drown.
" So the fact that the emotional processing took them somewhere so much better than they ever would have imagined, really needs to be noticed, almost like confronting the new experience head on, so it can shake up our unconscious reality. Remember it is the process of our brain witnessing some mismatch, in this case, the mismatch between what we expected and what actually happened, that it opens the neurons that hold the original pattern in place, so that a whole new reality can be integrated. One in which we are able to feel what we feel and know what we know.
The reason I phrased it that way is there is this beautiful Bowlby quote about insecure attachment that says: "the child learns to not feel what she feels or know what she knows. " That kind of old learning can be undone in a moment if the situation is set up right. And what kind of setup is just right?
Again, one in which our old learnings and some new learning can consciously stand in contrast. Now, during metaprocessing this contrast is quite likely to become apparent, where the newness of the experience is so surprising that it just naturally brings to mind: "wow, this is not what I would have predicted! " After all metaprocessing has the term meta in it because we are processing the process.
We are standing in, and reflecting upon, the piece of healing work we just did. When we take time for that and let the goodness of the experience really be embodied, and reflected upon, the surprising beauty of it all can then more boldly stand in contrast to the original expectation. Now because I'm also trained in Coherence Therapy, which is specifically designed with memory reconsolidation in mind, when I am metaprocessing, I tend to do just a little extra due diligence with this piece by simply asking: "Was this what you expected?
" Because remember, you want electricity running through the original network or prediction at the same time as it's witnessing the mismatch. Or I might say something like: "You know at the beginning of session when you were anxious upon my asking about your emotions, would that anxious part of you have predicted it would have felt like this? " Again, it's useful to guide the clients to remember what they originally expected so that as they sit in the new experience, a mismatch is more likely to be detected by the brain.
In Coherence Therapy we call that creating a juxtaposition experience and I integrate it into my IFS work as well, again just to go the extra mile to assure that memory reconsolidation is fully unlocked. But, with or without that particular addition, this kind of exploring the newness and allowing ourselves to fully embody and reflect upon what we are experiencing during therapy, is what meta processing is all about. It's about giving the brain the chance to fully witness the surprise ending.
Now, even if we didn't do metaprocessing, it's possible that memory reconsolidation might happen anyway, it's just less likely or reliable. Again, this is why I encourage people to integrate metaprocessing into any kind of healing work that they do. It really works to make sure that the emotionally corrective experience is fully corrective.
Now, most of what I've described so far has to do with updating our unconscious beliefs around whether it's safe to feel what we feel and connect emotionally with another person, but during this process it is very likely that other unconscious beliefs might be updated as well. That's because when we're doing emotional processing work, we have the chance to revisit key parts of our narrative so that they can become more complex, and nuanced, and life-affirming. That happens in state 4, where we are able to simply be, reflect, you know tap into deep wisdom, and look back on the rich exploration that just preceded this moment for the purpose of what's called "autobiographical reconstruction.
" Now, my plan was to record a video on that very topic today but when I started writing the outline I realized it is such a rich topic and there's so much I want to say about it! I just want to take a little more time to think it all through. But before I end, I would like to give sort of the bottom line in terms of what that next video might hold.
You know, when we're processing things emotionally, it isn't just for the sake of updating our relationship around emotions. It's also for the sake of returning to important moments in our life and when we return to those places, or parts of ourselves, or experience we find that these parts not only hold on to emotion they're also holding on to the things we learned about ourself, or even just about life, during the emotional moments. Like if we tap into the pain of dad having left at age eight, not only is it beautiful to process that pain and not only will doing so undo our fear of emotions and our core aloneness, it's also a chance to realize that when he left I took on the belief that it was my fault.
In other words, when we return to painful moments, not only do we find pain, we find stories, our unconscious narratives. However, after we have moved through the emotional arc of witnessing the pain we are in a brain state that is particularly able to look at things in a new way, you know to take in context, to view things with complexity. Why?
Because by the end of the work we've landed in a state that is, not only positively valenced, but by the end settles into a deep kind of presence filled with contentment and compassion, and there's a lot of research to show that positive emotions, especially on their more quiet side, prime our brain to attend to context and complexity and look at things with deeper creativity and clarity. In other words, that final core state has such wisdom available to it that as we reflect on the negative stories or meanings we've unconsciously taken on, it is very likely that we will be able to come up with a new perspective that is deep enough to serve as a disconfirmation, thereby triggering memory reconciliation. In other words, I believe AEDP works not only to update our unconscious beliefs around emotions, you know an emotional closeness as being safe, but potentially on all other kinds of unconscious beliefs as well, so that the whole story of our life can change.
The reason I just wanted to kind of squish this point in here at the end, even though I'd really prefer to make a whole separate video on it, is because the main thrust of this video, in which we explored how AEDP works to activate memory reconsolidation by offering a new, disconfirming experience of emotions and relationship, that's a point that has already been written about by my mentor, Bruce Ecker, who is the main person to discuss therapeutic approaches through the lens of memory consolidation. My students and I meet with Bruce every other week for two hours just to talk about memory reconsolidation and how it can be used clinically, but I haven't seen him write about that second point and that could just be because he's not an AEDP therapist. I just think there's a little more detail here to be explored around how AEDP helps us remap all sorts of unconscious imprints, even those not necessarily related to emotion or attachment.
So thanks for letting me bring in a little bit of that point right here at the end with hopefully more to follow. My name is DrTori Olds and I truly appreciate your watching. [Music] Thanks so much for watching!
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