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For nearly a century, ever since
Pavlov's work, the available evidence led neuroscientists to
believe that once emotional conditioning is "consolidated" in long-term
memory circuits, it is indelible, permament. The best one can do for
change, within this view, is to counteract and hopefully
suppress the conditioned responses driven by these seemingly permanent
"implicit
memory" circuits. Counteracting -- the strategy of setting up a
preferred state to replace an unwanted one -- became the strategy of
most
therapies now in widespread use, such as the cognitive-behavioral
and solution-focused therapies.
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A sea change in therapeutic strategy is
implied by the discovery of a type of synapse change, or
"neuro- plasticity," that can erase, not just counteract, the neural
circuits of emotional conditioning. It means that our neurodynamics do allow our emotional learnings
from early in life to be revised at a fundamental level.
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"Reconsolidation" is
what neuroscientists call the revision of the neural
circuits of long-term
emotional
memory. Whenever a therapy client
has a deep change event in which longstanding emotional meanings and
reactions actually cease to exist, reconsolidation presumably has occurred.
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such results from time to time. Coherence therapy is designed to
make that kind of
profound change a regular occurrence in a therapist's daily practice.
By knowingly working the built-in process of deep change -- a native, natural
process that matches the steps required for
reconsolidation -- therapists experience a significant enhancement in
their ability to prompt decisive,
lasting
change and symptom cessation. |
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Further reading
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| Case
study of a
coherence therapy session for a woman with a 20-year compulsive eating
problem: click
here. |
| Set
of three peer-reviewed
journal articles that present a fascinating look at the implications of neuroscience for
psychotherapy and the
detailed neuroscientific
case for coherence therapy: click
here. |
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Online
Course
Descriptions
CE credit for Psychologists,
LMFTs, LCSWs, Counselors
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"It is a bold vision...
as
conceptually strong as it
is compassionate...
I wholeheartedly recommend coherence therapy as
the
most compelling incarnation of clinical constructivism on the
contemporary scene."
--Robert A.
Neimeyer, Ph.D., Editor, Journal of Constructivist Psychology |
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"This is a brilliant
break- through... Accessible,
nonpathologizing language, sophisticated yet profoundly simple theory,
and powerful therapeutic process combine to make this work of the
highest significance. I have rarely been this impressed."
--Stephen M. Johnson, Ph.D., author of Character
Styles, Characterological Transform- ation and other titles |
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"A
challenging,
precise, and exciting approach...
combine[s] a thoughtful attention to the unconscious with a commitment
to
making every session count. Gutsy, convincing and powerful!"
--David
B. Waters, Ph.D., Professor of Family Practice & Psychiatry,
University of Virginia, author of Competence, Courage and Change |
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