BIBLIOGRAPHY
Note: Coherence Therapy was known as Depth Oriented Brief Therapy prior to 2005
Books
Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation
by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic & Laurel Hulley
New York: Routledge (2012).
A therapist's guide to utilizing memory reconsolidation, the brain's built-in process of transformational change. Identifies how this process occurs in a range of very different-seeming therapies—such as AEDP, Coherence Therapy, EMDR, EFT and IPNB—and shows how memory reconsolidation is poised to create four breakthroughs in the psychotherapy field: enhanced effectiveness, a unified understanding of diverse therapies of deep, lasting change, clarification of the role of attachment in therapy, and an empirical disconfirmation of nonspecific common factors theory. More information»
Coherence Therapy Practice Manual & Training Guide
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
Oakland, CA: Coherence Psychology Institute (2011).
This 86-page manual incorporates many detailed features of practice, principles, training exercises and troubleshooting guides that are not available in any other publication. Table of contents and ordering information»
Depth Oriented Brief Therapy: How To Be Brief When You Were Trained To Be Deep, and Vice Versa
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1996).
A nuanced guide to DOBT/Coherence Therapy with many case examples illustrating the techniques, the methodological principles, and the constructivist conceptual framework of this approach applied with individuals, couples and families. More information»
Preprint
Reconsolidation behavioral updating of human emotional memory: A comprehensive review and unified analysis of successes, replication failures, and clinical translation – by Bruce Ecker
PsyArXiv, 19 November 2021. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/atz3m
ABSTRACT. The annulment of a human emotional memory through reconsolidation behavioral updating has been documented in over twenty laboratory studies since the first such report in 2010. However, fourteen studies have reported non-replication, the cause(s) of which remain unclear. This review examines all successful and unsuccessful studies in detail, in an attempt to identify (a) the specific probable causes of non-replication and (b) how clinical translation might optimally be designed. For analyzing non-replications, a set of criteria is defined for principled identification of specific moments of prediction error (PE) in experimental procedures, including latent cause transitions, based on a preponderance of empirical evidence. A previously overlooked element of experimental procedure is in that way identified as being potentially decisive, and a unified, testable explanation is proposed for behavioral updating successes and failures in terms of the presence or absence of a PE experience. That in turn allows successful studies to be compared for the internal experiences induced in subjects, rather than compared for their external procedures, revealing an invariant set of three experiences shared by all successful updating studies despite their diverse procedures. Clinical translation, defined as replication of those experiences, not any particular procedure, is illustrated by an actual case, one of many published cases that have documented prompt transformational change produced by that specific methodology, suggesting memory reconsolidation as the mechanism of change. Lastly, the core empirical findings of successful reconsolidation updating studies are compared with previously proposed frameworks of memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy, exposing significant departures from scientific fidelity. Access»
Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Memory reconsolidation and the crisis of mechanism in psychotherapy
– Bruce Ecker & Alexandre Vaz
New Ideas in Psychology, 66, (2022). doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.100945
ABSTRACT. Internal mechanisms of lasting therapeutic change have eluded empirical identification despite decades of outcome research. A breakthrough may be at hand in neurobiological research on memory reconsolidation (MR), which has identified (a) a fundamental mechanism of the brain capable of targeted, profound unlearning and nullification of subcortical emotional learnings and the behaviors and states of mind they generate, and (b) the specific experiences required by the brain for such unlearning. We review the empirically identified process of annulment of emotional learnings, show that it fulfills clinical theorists' criteria for a mechanism of change, and define an empirical study to validate or falsify this MR mechanism's hypothesized clinical occurrence and causal role in therapeutic change. Extensive preliminary clinical observations of transformational change, also described, strongly support the causal role of the mechanism. The MR framework could significantly advance psychotherapy effectiveness and unification, and resolve longstanding clinical conundrums and controversies. Download»
How the science of memory reconsolidation advances the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy – Bruce Ecker & Sara K. Bridges
Clinical Social Work Journal, 48(3), 287-300 (2020). doi:10.1007/s10615-020-00754-z
ABSTRACT. Memory reconsolidation research by neuroscientists has demonstrated the erasure of emotional learnings. This article reviews these historic findings and how they translate directly into therapeutic application to provide the clinical field with an empirically confirmed process of transformational change. Psychotherapists' early use of this new, transtheoretical knowledge indicates a strong potential for significant advances in both the effectiveness of psychotherapy and the unification of its many diverse systems. The erasure process consists of the creation of certain critical experiences required by the brain, and it neither dictates nor limits the experiential methods that therapists can use to facilitate the needed experiences. This article explains memory reconsolidation, delineates the empirically confirmed process, illustrates it in a case example of long-term depression, indicates the evidence supporting the hypothesis that this process is responsible for transformational change in any therapy sessions, describes the differing mechanisms underlying transformational change versus incremental change, and reports extensive clinical evidence that the basis and cause of most of the problems and symptoms presented by therapy clients are emotional learnings, that is, emotionally laden mental models, or schemas, in semantic memory. Download»
Memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy for severe perfectionism within borderline personality
– Alexandre Vaz & Bruce Ecker
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1-12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23058
ABSTRACT
Objective(s): For a case of severe perfectionism, comorbid with complex trauma symptomatology including suicidality, self-harming, and other markers of borderline personality, we demonstrate the use of the empirically confirmed process identified in memory reconsolidation (MR) research for the unlearning and nullification, or "erasure," of emotional and behavioral responses driven by learned expectations and mental models. MR has been proposed as a transtheoretical, unifying mechanism underlying profound psychotherapeutic change. The therapist (first author), under the second author's supervision, used a varied set of clinical skills woven together through a focus on the MR process.
Results: The result was a depotentiation of underlying, traumatic emotional learnings and near-total disappearance of perfectionistic and self-harming behaviors, urges and attitudes after 1 year of therapy.
Conclusions: Implications of this case are discussed in terms of symptom generation by implicit emotional learnings and MR as a promising framework for advancing the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy.
Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research:
Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production – Bruce Ecker
International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 6(1), 1-92 (2018). doi:10.12744/ijnpt.2018.0001-0092
ABSTRACT. After 20 years of laboratory study of memory reconsolidation, the translation of research findings into clinical application has recently been the topic of a rapidly growing number of review articles. The present article identifies previously unrecognized possibilities for effective clinical translation by examining research findings from the experience-oriented viewpoint of the clinician. It is well established that destabilization of a target learning and its erasure (robust functional disappearance) by behavioral updating are experience-driven processes. By interpreting the research in terms of internal experiences required by the brain, rather than in terms of external laboratory procedures, a clinical methodology of updating and erasure unambiguously emerges, with promising properties: It is applicable for any symptom generated by emotional learning and memory, it is readily adapted to the unique target material of each therapy client, and it has extensive corroboration in existing clinical literature, including cessation of a wide range of symptoms and verification of erasure using the same markers relied upon by laboratory researchers. Two case vignettes illustrate clinical implementation and show erasure of lifelong, complex, intense emotional learnings and full, lasting cessation of major long-term symptoms. The experience-oriented framework also provides a new interpretation of the laboratory erasure procedure known as post-retrieval extinction, indicating limited clinical applicability and explaining for the first time why, even with reversal of the protocol (post-extinction retrieval), reconsolidation and erasure still occur. Also discussed are significant ramifications for the clinical field’s “corrective experience” paradigm, for psychotherapy integration, and for establishing that specific factors can produce extreme therapeutic effectiveness. Download»
Memory reconsolidation understood and misunderstood
Bruce Ecker
International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 3(1), 2-46 (2015). doi:10.12744/ijnpt.2015.0002-0046
ABSTRACT: Memory reconsolidation is the brain's natural, neural process that can produce transformational change: the full, permanent elimination of an acquired behavior or emotional response. This article identifies and examines 10 common misconceptions regarding memory reconsolidation research findings and their translation into clinical practice. The research findings are poised to drive significant advancements in both the theory and practice of psychotherapy, but these benefits depend on an accurate understanding of how memory reconsolidation functions, and misconceptions have been proliferating. This article also proposes a unified model of reconsolidation and extinction phenomena based on the brain’s well-established requirement of memory mismatch (prediction error) for reconsolidation to be triggered. A reinterpretation of numerous studies published without reference to the mismatch requirement shows how the mismatch requirement and mismatch relativity (MRMR) model can account for diverse empirical findings, reveal unrecognized dynamics of memory change, and generate predictions testable by further research. Download reprint»
Minding the findings: Let's not miss the message of memory reconsolidation research for psychotherapy -- by Bruce Ecker, Laurel Hulley and Robin Ticic
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, 24, e7 (2015). doi:10.1017/S0140525X14000168
This short commentary article urges close attention to what the research tells us about how memory reconsolidation functions, rather than construing reconsolidation in terms of familiar, pre-existing models of psychotherapy. The role of emotion in the reconsolidation process is the specific focus here, with a research-based critique of the mistaken view that "changing emotion with emotion" is how reconsolidation produces therapeutic change. Download reprint»
Coherence therapy as a synthesis of conclusions from constructivist clinical practice and
neuroscience discoveries -- by Michał Jasiński
Psychoterapia, 4 (171), 13-24 (2014).
This open-access article is in Polish. Abstract: This article presents features of a recent constructivist approach, coherence therapy, formerly known as depth-oriented brief therapy. Constructivism—the epistemology that informs it—is described briefly with its influence on psychotherapy. Coherence therapy's convergence with a crucial neuroscientific discovery of memory reconsolidation is thoroughly discussed and the implications of this convergence for psychotherapy are suggested. Coherence therapy's process is described and a new possible framework of integration in the field of psychotherapy is suggested. Download reprint»
Competing visions of the implications of neuroscience for psychotherapy
by Brian Toomey & Bruce Ecker
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 22, 95-140 (2009). doi:10.1080/10720530802675748
This third and final article of the series considers three current, influential interpretations of the implications of neuroscience for psychotherapy: pharmacological treatment, reparative attachment therapy, and the cognitive regulation of emotion and behavior. On the basis of efficacy data and neuroscientific research, it is concluded that each of the three interpretations implements only part of the brain’s known capabilities for change, and that fuller use of these capabilities occurs through a therapeutic strategy of selective depotentiation of implicit memory, as epitomized by coherence therapy. Download reprint»
Depotentiation of symptom-producing implicit memory in coherence therapy
by Bruce Ecker & Brian Toomey
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 21, 87-150 (2008). doi:10.1080/10720530701853685
This second of three articles describes how coherence therapy operates both experientially and synaptically. Particular attention is given to the neural basis for coherence therapy’s purported ability to produce a profound depotentiation of long-term, symptom-generating constructs in implicit memory. It is proposed that coherence therapy achieves transformative change by inducing the reconsolidation of memory, a recently discovered, potent form of neuroplasticity, and evidence is presented for this hypothesis. A fundamental distinction is made on neuroscientific grounds between transformative change, which permanently eliminates symptom-generating constructs and neural circuits, and counteractive change, which creates new constructs and circuits that compete against the symptom-generating ones and is inherently susceptible to relapse. Download reprint»
Of neurons and knowings: Constructivism, coherence psychology and their neurodynamic substrates
by Brian Toomey & Bruce Ecker
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 20, 201-245 (2007). doi:10.1080/10720530701347860
This first of a set of three articles examines the neuroscientific support for coherence therapy’s model of symptom production—a model centering on unconscious knowledge structures in implicit memory.
Download reprint»
Articles on Memory Reconsolidation in Psychotherapy
Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research:
Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production – by Bruce Ecker
International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 6(1), 1-92 (2018). doi:10.12744/ijnpt.2018.0001-0092
PLEASE SEE THIS ARTICLE'S LISTING IN SECTION ABOVE
Memory reconsolidation research confirms and advances the corrective experience paradigm
by Bruce Ecker
The Integrative Therapist, 4(3), 27-29 (2018).
This engagingly readable article is one of the best introductions to what memory reconsolidation means for the psychotherapy field, particularly for readers fond of the corrective experience framework. Download»
Memory reconsolidation understood and misunderstood -- by Bruce Ecker
International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 3(1), 2-46 (2015). doi:10.12744/ijnpt.2015.0002-0046
PLEASE SEE THIS ARTICLE'S LISTING IN SECTION ABOVE
Psychotherapy's mysterious efficacy ceiling: Is memory reconsolidation the breakthrough?
by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist, 16, 6-24 (2015). doi: 10.12744/tnpt(16)006-024
This article is an edited transcript of Bruce Ecker's provocative, paradigm-defining 2006 keynote address given at the University of California, San Marcos, to psychologists and doctoral students at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Constructivist Psychology Network. This is the pivotal moment when memory reconsolidation—the discovery of which had been established by brain researchers six years earlier—was recognized to be a disconfirmation of nonspecific common factors theory and a process of change that transcends the 70-year history of equal efficacy measured across all tested psychotherapies. Download»
Understanding memory reconsolidation -- by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist, 10, pp. 4-22 (January 2015). doi:10.12744/tnpt(10)004-022
Three common misconceptions of memory reconsolidation are identified and clarified in this article (which is an excerpt and adaptation of a longer article covering ten misconceptions, titled "Memory Reconsolidation Understood and Misunderstood," in the International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy). The discussion delves into both laboratory studies and clinical use of reconsolidation. Download»
Deep release for body and soul: Memory reconsolidation and the Alexander technique
by Robin Ticic and Elise Kushner
The Neuropsychotherapist, 10, pp. 24-28 (January 2015). doi:10.12744/tnpt(10)024-028
How the Alexander Technique, a system of body work, can carry out the therapeutic reconsolidation process is illustrated in a case vignette involving a cluster of post-traumatic symptoms. Download»
Using NLP for memory reconsolidation: A glimpse of integrating the panoply of psychotherapies
by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist, 10, pp. 50-56 (January 2015). doi:10.12744/tnpt(10)050-056
A case example of PTSD illustrates how the therapeutic reconsolidation process can serve as a therapist's master map that unifies the kaleidoscopic array of different therapy systems into a rich repertoire of choices for guiding the brain's core process of transformational change. In this case, one of the main techniques of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is chosen. How it brings about reconsolidation and erases the client's traumatic learning is described in detail. Download»
Annals of memory reconsolidation: Lagging accounts cause confusion -- by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist (2014, July 14).
A look at the current state of disarray in the dissemination of research findings on memory reconsolidation. The findings are clear, but why are some researchers stuck at an earlier, incorrect interpretation and feeding it to the media?
Go»
Remembering in order to forget -- by Paul Sibson and Robin Ticic
Therapy Today, 25 (2), pp. 26-29 (March 2014).
This article—published in Therapy Today, the monthly journal of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)—acquaints readers with memory reconsolidation, describing it as the "engine of change" within diverse forms of psychotherapy and a universal, theory-independent process. The case example addresses a woman's "paralyzing inability to move out from her mother's home, despite a conscious, desperate desire to do so." Visit TherapyToday.net to read more articles. � British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2014.
Download reprint»
Unlocking the emotional brain: Is memory reconsolidation the key to transformation?
by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley
Psychotherapy Networker, 37 (4), pp. 18-25, 46-47 (July 2013).
An introduction to memory reconsolidation and how its use in therapy puts therapists in control of more consistently facilitating deep, liberating change. Illustrated with case examples of Coherence Therapy. Adapted from the book, Unlocking the Emotional Brain, listed above. Download reprint»
Nonspecific common factors theory meets memory reconsolidation: A game-changing encounter?
by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist, 2, pp. 134-137 (July 2013).
A concise statement of the inescapable implications of memory reconsolidation research, disconfirming a widely accepted theory and providing a new explanation of why 75 years of psychotherapy efficacy measurements have kept hitting the same ceiling. Go»
A primer on memory reconsolidation and its psychotherapeutic use as a core process of profound change -- by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley
The Neuropsychotherapist, 1, pp. 82-99 (April 2013).
An introductory account adapted from the book, Unlocking the Emotional Brain, listed above. Illustrated with a case example of Coherence Therapy. Download reprint»
The coming breakthrough in the mental health field -- by Bruce Ecker
The Neuropsychotherapist (posted March 4, 2013).
Spells out four major ways in which memory reconsolidation will revolutionize the field of psychotherapy as understanding and use of it spreads through the clinical field. Download reprint»
Reconsolidation: A universal, integrative framework for highly effective psychotherapy
by Bruce Ecker
MentalHelp.net blog (posted January 13, 2011).
A short introduction to memory reconsolidation, how it works, and why it ushers the psychotherapy field into a new era of greatly enhanced effectiveness and a unified understanding of how diverse forms of therapy bring about deep, lasting change. Go»
The brain's rules for change: Translating cutting-edge neuroscience into practice -- by Bruce Ecker
Psychotherapy Networker, 34 (1), pp. 43-45, 60 (Jan-Feb 2010).
Describes how therapists can utilize memory reconsolidation, the brain’s built-in process for actually unwiring and deleting an unwanted emotional response learned earlier in life. Read about how the steps of the process were first identified clinically in the development of Coherence Therapy in the early 1990s, and subsequently were discovered independently by neuroscientists using very different methods. A case example of Coherence Therapy illustrates the art that implements the science. Download reprint»
Unlocking the emotional brain: Finding the neural key to transformation -- by Bruce Ecker
Psychotherapy Networker, 32 (5), pp. 42-47, 60 (Sept-Oct 2008).
An easy-reading account of a major recent discovery in neuroscience -- the process of memory reconsolidation that can actually rewrite the neural memory circuits maintaining a specific, learned emotional response, for deep, lasting change that dispels clients’ symptoms at their emotional roots. A case example shows how the process is guided in Coherence Therapy. Download reprint»
Other Articles on Therapeutic Process
The hidden logic of anxiety: Look for the emotional truth behind the symptom -- by Bruce Ecker
Psychotherapy Networker, 27 (6), pp. 38-43, 58 (Nov-Dec 2003).
Four case examples show that when the unconscious basis of anxiety and panic symptoms is brought to light, a deep sense and coherence is found, and that effective methods of transformation embrace rather than try to counteract these underlying emotional truths. Download reprint»
Coherence Therapy toolkit for focused, in-depth effectiveness (revised edition)
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
Originally published in New Therapist, 20, 24-29 (July-Aug 2002).
A long history of severe panic attacks comes to a surprisingly fruitful end in five sessions that show the main features of Coherence Therapy in action. Download text-only edition»
Deep from the start: Profound change in brief therapy -- by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
Psychotherapy Networker, 26 (1), pp. 46-51, 64 (Jan-Feb 2002).
An introduction to Coherence Therapy/DOBT demonstrating its use in dispelling a woman's lifelong "black cloud" of depression, stagnation, low self-esteem and family issues. Download reprint»
A new zone of effectiveness for psychotherapy -- by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
New Therapist, 6, 31-33 (2000).
Describes the emergence of a new paradigm of psychotherapy in the 1990s, allowing far swifter in-depth effectiveness and accuracy than has been assumed possible in the field. Defines the constructivist paradigm of coherence, contrasts it with the disorder paradigm shaping most therapeutic modalities throughout the 20th century, and indicates modalities of therapy that can implement the coherence approach. Available online»
DOBT: Insights in a small space -- by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
Family Therapy News, 29 (7), 27-28 (1999).
A case study of couples therapy in which DOBT/Coherence Therapy is applied to loss of sexual desire, weight problems, and the struggle of a logic-based man and a feelings-based woman to communicate.
Briefer and deeper: Addressing the unconscious in short-term treatment
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
Family Therapy Networker, 22 (1), 75-83 (1998). Republished in: R. Simon, L. Markowitz, C. Barrilleaux, & B. Topping (Eds.) (1999). The art of psychotherapy: Case studies from the Family Therapy Networker (pp. 32-41). New York: Wiley.
A close look at a single session of depth oriented brief therapy with a couple in chronic conflict, illustrating how focusing the work directly into the unconscious emotional basis of the problem can be the very means of making therapy brief.
Book Chapters
Erasing Problematic Emotional Learnings: Psychotherapeutic Use of Memory Reconsolidation Research -- by Bruce Ecker
In R. D. Lane & L. Nadel (Eds.), Neuroscience of Enduring Change: Implications for Psychotherapy (pp. 273-299).
New York: Oxford University Press (2020). doi: 10.1093/oso/9780190881511.003.0011
Coherence Therapy: The roots of problems and the transformation of old solutions
by Sara K. Bridges
In H. E. A. Tinsley, S. H. Lease & N. S. Giffin Wiersma (Eds.), Contemporary Theory and Practice in Counseling and Psychotherapy (pp. 353-380). Thousand Oaks, California & London, UK: Sage Publications (2015).
An engaging account of Coherence Therapy and its use of memory reconsolidation, in a graduate clinical anthology that surveys thirteen major systems of psychotherapy. To view the book on amazon.com, click here.
Overt statements for deep work in grief therapy -- by Bruce Ecker
In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Techniques of grief therapy (pp. 152-154). New York: Routledge (2012).
Illustrates how a simple experiential technique often used in Coherence Therapy was applied to access the hidden, coherent core of a tenacious, complicated bereavement.
Coherence therapy: Swift change at the core of symptom production -- by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley
In J. D. Raskin & S. K. Bridges (Eds.), Studies in Meaning 3. New York: Pace University Press (2008).
A study of a single session for a woman’s 20-year compulsive overeating and weight problem illustrates Coherence Therapy facilitating a deep resolution of attachment wounds. The neurobiological correlates of the process are also described.
Depth oriented brief therapy: Accelerated accessing of the coherent unconscious
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley. In J. Carlson & L. Sperry (Eds.), Brief therapy with individuals and couples (pp. 161-190). Phoenix: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen (2000).
A delineation of the methodology and principles of DOBT/Coherence Therapy, specific techniques for implementing this methodology, and detailed case examples from individual therapy for underachieving and low self-esteem and couple therapy for chronic power struggles.
The order in clinical “disorder”: Symptom coherence in depth oriented brief therapy
by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley. In R. A. Neimeyer & J. Raskin (Eds.), Constructions of disorder (pp. 63-89). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press (2000).
Four case examples of anxiety and panic are used to show that symptoms diagnosed as “disorder” in standard psychiatric taxonomy are produced by the same coherent pattern of unconscious self-organization as in non-symptomatic psychological process. The rapid accessibility and resolvability of symptoms’ unconscious emotional basis is also demonstrated.
Postmodern approaches to psychotherapy -- by Robert A. Neimeyer & Sara K. Bridges
In A. S Gurman,. & S. B. Messer (Eds.), Essential psychotherapies, 2nd Ed. (pp. 272-316). New York: Guilford (2003).
Includes an examination of DOBT (Coherence Therapy) in the context of a wide range of postmodern psychotherapies.
Varieties of constructivism in psychotherapy -- by Robert A. Neimeyer & Jonathan D. Raskin
In K. S. Dobson (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies (pp. 407-411). New York: Guilford (2001).
Includes an examination of DOBT (Coherence Therapy) in the context of a wide range of other constructivist psychotherapies.