It's hard to believe how much I've learned, how much I've grown, how much my life has radiantly blossomed and rejuvenated over the past few years.
It's remarkable, really, that a person my age would still be reflecting, renewing, and richly developing.
Resilient.
Remarkable.
Resplendent.
Reinvented.
Reborn.
~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.
I’m introducing to past and existing clients something new in my practice of psychotherapy, with the potential for transformational memory shift, impactful emotional new feelings and activating emotional healing.
Kindly 🌿 be sure to make it to the three specific, total of 18 minute videos shared below. (With yet more shared, too). I labeled that area with three (3) 🌿🌿🌿 below
Earlier in my career, I completed training in several trauma informed perspectives, for aiding *any* psychological hurt that remains with you to the present moment. These have included EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - with Francine Shapiro, The Flash Technique (with Philip Manfield), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Sue Johnson and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT - tapping). I also earned certification in Oregon to be among the first Oregon Health Authority Licensed Psilocybin Facilitators in America.
Happy with these approaches overall, but dis-satisfied with them, too, I’ve been looking for better ways to guide people in their healing process & transformational life journey.
I have recently completed numerous training sessions and came to the work of Bruce Ecker’s summary, in Unlocking the Emotional Brain. Ecker and others have built on the work of the best neuroscience and pointed out that the reason many “techniques” in healing for any psychological injury are effective is that *sometimes* these other methods follow the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process (TRP), also known as Memory Reconsolidation - known also as the ECPE for Empirically Confirmed Process of Erasure - allows persons to re-experience difficult, distressing events of and hold onto the memory, while erasing the *emotion* of the past hurt from the memory. In other words, the memory still “exists” AND YET, the emotional pain tied to the memory is “unlocked” and can be neutralized.
I like to offer an analogy for thinking about this: When you update an app that is running on your mobile device, the updated app still runs more or not in the same way and yet differently after the update has been run. Through the Memory Reconsolidation process, a person still holds on to a memory from the past, but the updated version of it is drained from a significant amount, if not all, of the emotional aspects of the old version of that story. In the update.
The process can be “completed” as a “technique” in one of several ways - that is why different “techniques” in trauma & psychological injury healing have worked in the past 20 years of psychotherapy! And yet, the “techniques” are not what heals, it is the brain’s emotional processing that operates within each technique that brings about lasting emotional change from past psychological injury.
My headlong quest into finding help to shift persons from their psychological injury toward wellness has included numerous more recent completed studies and trainings to include:
Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT) with Jon Connelly
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) with Laney Rosenzweig.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) with Diana Fosha, PhD.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. and the IFS Institute.
Four Blinks with Thomas Zimmerman
The RECON method for trauma reconsolidation with Courtney Armstrong
Rapid Trauma Processing with Dave Ebaugh, LCSW
Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT)
Somatic Experiencing Training International with Peter Levine
Integrating these “techniques” - I am now working to aid people in Memory Reconsolidation based on Bruce Ecker's synthesis of the brains process within the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process.
What does this mean “in a real appointment”?
The process I’m engaging in to get persons through the TRP / MR (Memory Reconsolidation) only needs you to want to “unlock your emotional” past hurts and to show up in a calm, quiet, and thoughtful setting.
The appointment requires you to think back to any difficulty distressing memory in the past - and yet you don't have to stay there and won't stay there. You don't even need to describe the details of the past hurt to me - you only be able to label it or title it for me to remind you to "go back there" for brief moments.
Having a full-screen monitor (computer, tv is most simple) but it can be done without a monitor. I prefer eye movement for the process over body movement as some clients get exhausted with the body movement.) Currently, I’m using a link I’ll send from this bilateral eye movement website: https://www.
The engaging work runs 20-40 minutes using most, but not all of an appointment on most occasions. If a person is processing a more difficult distressing memory, it might be good to alert me so we can plan for you to have an extra 10-20 minutes into “the next hour” for ensuring we come to a calm, neutral end, if not an optimistic neutral end.
Most of the session's time is rooted in a grounding, positive emotionally focused event of some positive emotion, good feeling.
The process does require you to experience the emotional distress of the past difficult memory, in order to fire and wire your brain’s neural memory in order to unlearn and retrain that neural pathway in your brain. The process does invite a person to think new thoughts and think imaginatively, while being grounded in real experience that "feels right" for each client.
A client only needs to briefly experience the distress, and we do *not* want to stay there, nor get stuck there, nor remain there long - most of the session works toward grounded good feelings and new ways to think about the old past emotional event as new neural pathways are consolidated with better ways of thinking and emoting.
A good portion of the session's time is also "imaginal" where you "create a new memory experience" in a way that shows up unique to your life's story.
If you’re interested in more, there are tons of ways I can share more, lots that you can read. Though, you can also just “trust me” to guide YOUR emotion through the process of remembering your past pain, in order to UNLEARN that emotional event from it’s emotional pain, to a different and less distressing, and more neutral experience. On the basis of the neutral experience, you can then be postured for new transformational experiences in your emotional well-being, and poised for new growth.
🌿🌿🌿 Below are the three select videos,for a total of 18 minutes of the resources that I believe most simply point to what this is and how it works. 🌿🌿🌿
Three (3) minute introduction to memory consolidation and reconsolidation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Five (5) minute introduction to Transformation Change, MR (Memory Reconsolidation) & Bruce Ecker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Ten (10) minute narrative of Bruce Ecker (Coherence Institute) with whom I received certified training and who inspires me as a practitioner, and for the promise and potential of Memory Reconsolidation, an unlocked emotional brain and a transformation potential to move into a new future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
MANY more links:
PDF Research Paper: memory reconsolidation understood and misunderstood Bruce Ecker Coherence Psychology Institute
https://coherencetherapy.org/
PDF Research Paper: Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research: Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production by Bruce Ecker
18 Page Summer: A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation and its psychotherapeutic use as a
core process of profound change by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley
https://coherencetherapy.org/
APA Psychology Paper: How the science of memory reconsolidation advances the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy.
https://psycnet.apa.org/
Research Gate Paper: UNDERSTANDING MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION - January 2015 -- The Neuropsychotherapist
https://www.researchgate.net/
BOOK ABSTRACT: Unlocking the Emotional Brain Memory Reconsolidation and the Psychotherapy of Transformational Change
1st Edition Book Link: Unlocking the Emotional Brain (Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions) 1st Edition by Bruce Ecker (Author), Robin Ticic (Author), Laurel Hulley (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/
BOOK: Newest Edition: Unlocking the Emotional Brain Paperback – April 22, 2024 by Bruce Ecker (Author), Robin Ticic (Author), Laurel Hulley (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/
VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation and Metaprocessing Emotions | AEDP with Dr. Tori Olds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation: How to Rewire Our Brain with Dr. Tori Olds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
VIDEO: The 5 steps of memory reconsolidation with Courtney Armstrong
https://youtu.be/yG_t_1jfLQA?
Understanding Memory Reconsolidation in this Version of Flash with Thomas Zimmerman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
VIDEO: The Brain's Process of Profound Change: A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation for Therapists with Bruce Ecker
https://youtu.be/_a2uxTQpqAM?
The Crucial Role Of Repetition When Removing Trauma Using Memory Reconsolidation with Alun Parry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
BOOK: Rethinking Trauma Treatment: Attachment, Memory Reconsolidation, and Resilience by Courtney Armstrong
https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Trauma-Treatment-Attachment-Reconsolidation/dp/0393712559
VIDEO: Numerous Videos Bruce Ecker on Memory Reconsolidation
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bruce+ecker+memory+reconsolidation
VIDEO: A chat with Alun Parry about remove trauma response
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8WLIR0NTc
VIDEO: The Art and Neuroscience of Transformational Change: Dr Tori Olds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cZZu_yUhS0&t=0s
VIDEO: The Psychology of Schemas: Why Our Childhood Can Mess Us Up with Dr. Tori Olds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d629qUO-qkQ
VIDEO: Using Rapid Resolution Therapy for Treating Trauma with Dr. Jon Connelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW99j_Olyo8
VIDEO: MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION: Key To Transformational Change in Psychotherapy -- Bruce Ecker, LMFT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_rI2N6Fco&t=0s
VIDEO: What is the Role of Emotion in Memory?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLzFa-aiDmc
VIDEO: What is Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKiV3FNpXhk
VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation in a Nutshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrfsjT35UE
VIDEO: Memory reconsolidation may be the long-sought mechanism of change in psychotherapy with Bruce Ecker and the Coherence Institute
2023 is coming to an end.
It's incredible to me the amount of travel, exporation, study, engagement, learning, care and connection that has been part of this year, again! Wow!
It's been fun the past few months to be back in front of 100+ University students in four on-campus courses - and to be building networks of new friends and colleagues in Idaho.
Two books published this year! Woot! That may be it for the next many years!
A few fun opportunities to engage new care for clients are emerging for me in 2024 . . . so we'll see what happens with that - in fields tied to neurofeedback.
I've got more travel planned for 2024 than I know what to do with - and opportunity to engage online work and online teaching from any location! Hooray!
I remain invigorated by my work with persons with Severe & Persistent Mental Illness working for a major National Provider - and - with availability for me to sit-in-on instruction with the Massachusetts Bridgewater State Hospital Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology! Bonus that I get paid to attend the free-to-me-CEU courses!
For the past three years I partnered in clinical work with a superior, great, caring, diligent, and perspicuous supervisor. This person has been a solid beacon for me and such an important understanding human. She's engaged me with clarity in communication, understanding and wise perception. It's sad that the particularities of our working relationship have had to shift, and yet I am deeply, deeply grateful for superior vision from her for my professional development and maturity. What a joy to have attentive, clear, guiding, maturing supervision! A reminder to me that at every age and different stages of life we need mature guides, wise perspective and discerning counsel from others. I hope to be as good for others as this human has been for me - toward a world that is characterized by more peace and more flourishing.
So grateful for new friendships fostered in 2023 and deeply meaningful relationships from 2020, 2021, 2022 and pre-COVID to resonate with vibrant meaning in my weekly life and truly my every-day-life! And, to have met so many great new professional psychotherapy colleagues in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado who provide context and meaning to many issues of my professional development and aid in resourcing my questions!
And, at the end of the 2023, according to Oregon Health Authority records, just 201 persons are licensed by the OHA to be facilitators engaging persons with psilocybin services - and I was among the first 20 in June . . . and still in that group of just 201 now.
Life's complexity abounds - and yet the opportunities for providing care and expanding in my own calm clarity abounds yet more!
~ marty alan michelson
My life is characterized by so much for which I am grateful.
Tonight I hosted for dinner, a young couple from the University where I'm active as a Professor.
It is such a joy to be with young persons with their vitality, their curiosity, their insight, and their desire to be shaped to shape the world to be better.
This week, the Chair of our College shared with me that a Senior reported to him: "Dr. Michelson's class is the best one I've taken in my four years here!" Fun!
The Provost of the University recently tasked me with aiding some colleagues in conflict, using my peace and conflict negotiation practices, fostering clarity where mis(sed)ing communication, mis(sed)ing perceptions and mis(sed)ing understandings exist.
And . . . today, too, as with many days, I engaged a young person in a Suicide Watch and Mental Health Assessment with my contract work in government facilities for some interstate work in Mental Health.
What a life!
What a great, grand, wonderful life - to aid others, to mentor others, and to work toward peace and flourishing for all living beings.
~ marty
In the Fall I'll be teaching University courses as I return to my full-time role as Professor. I'll be back among a host of students and superior faculty colleagues.
In the past few days, with a colleague, we published a book. What a delight to have worked on a great project with a great friend (who now lives in Thailand) who I've known from my childhood! The book started in 2022, our friendship began in 1973!
In the past month, my other 2023 book was published. How great that several colleagues and friends informed what emerged in my 2021-2022 project!
I've recently quit working for an exceptional company in Portland, OR. My boss proved to be a great leader who demonstrated wisdom, insight in compassion, clinical acumen, and leadership vision, and supervision, for how she led and provided direction to me, and to all of us on her team.
I've cut back nearly all of my Mental Health Professional hours and will only be medically on-call working for another great company, where the Health Services Administrator over our Medical Facility has become a great friend, in addition to her keen oversight and directing me in my roles there.
I've always loved reading, writing, learning with others, completing great work with others, being shaped by great supervisors, engaged with great leaders, impacted by super colleagues.
What a life! How great to live it in the company of others!
