Transformation Step-by-Step

In the last blog post we showed how the Movie Theater Technique is an example of therapeutic reconsolidation by applying the three criteria of verification from the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process (TRP) proposed by Ecker, et. al. (2012). This time, we’ll use the same video to track the second phase of TRP, the transformation process.

The transformation process consists of three steps:

1. Reactivation of memory (B)
2. Activation of disconfirming knowledge (C)
3. Repetition of (B)-(C) juxtapositions

Let’s go to the video!

Step 1, The Reactivation of the Memory, happens quite clearly and dramatically at 0:39 when Steve asks the demonstration subject, Laurie, to think of a bee. The clients non-verbal response says it all.

Step 2, Activating Disconfirming Knowledge, comes after Steve sets up the double-dissociation using the visual metaphor of a movie theater. The initial disconfirmation occurs at about 4:00 as Laurie is watching herself watch the movie of the bees swarming. As she is watching, due to the dissociation, she is presented with the stimulus but fails to have the phobic response, thus confounding the prediction.

Step 3, The Repetition of (B)-(C) Pairing, or Repeated Juxtapositions, occur at 4:10, 4:50 and then again at 5:10 and 6:00. The first set of juxtapositions are the same as in Step 2, watching the “movie” without having the expected emotional response. At 4:05, Laurie says, “it seems to go over and over again…” and as she does so, she is talking in a calm tone. If anything, she actually sounds curious about it, which is the opposite of fear. At 4:10, Steve suggests she speed it up as she watches it two more times for two more juxtapositions.

The last three juxtapositions are different. Steve directs Laurie to float back into the theater seat, then float up into the younger version of herself in the end of the memory, and then rewind the full color movie back to before anything happened. He asks her to rewind the movie several times. Each time providing an experience very different from the brain-predicted phobic response. Both before and after the rewind, Laurie seems pretty amused. A far cry from her response at 0:39!

And that completes the second phase of TRP, the transformation process. To be sure you don’t miss out, join my email list and get my e-course on helping clients manage stress in session.

References Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. New York, NY: Routledge.