Do you ever wonder why you have trouble remembering disturbing past experiences?

That trauma healing is contingent on remembering it fully, is a ubiquitous myth. It goes like this: only once you can retrieve, recall, and recount your traumatic experiences in full detail, will you be ‘healed.’

Join me as I explain why this isn’t true and can even be counterproductive.

Why traumatic memory is different

What I often hear is people beating themselves up when they can’t recall every detail of what happened to them.

They tend to think, ‘if I can’t remember maybe that’s because it didn’t happen.’ I find it heart breaking that what this often means, is their experiences get minimised or denied altogether.

But what does it mean to remember a traumatic experience?

We know from neuroscience, that to enable a quick response to a dangerous threat, the instinctive parts of our brain (mammalian and reptilian) gear up to react, including shutting down the pre-frontal cortex or ‘thinking’ part of our brain. But without this part of the brain, we’re unable to attach the experience to language, or a logical chronology.

So – the process that helped you to survive the trauma – also prevents you from fully remembering it.

And instead of a coherent narrative attached to time, language, and context – traumatic experience leaves a legacy of fragmented images, intrusive memories, overwhelming emotions, and bodily sensations.

These represent unprocessed traumatic memories.

Why remembering is not healing

In earlier approaches to trauma therapy, people were encouraged to recall and describe the details of their trauma.

But research has shown that this can be destabilising – fully remembering and recounting the details of traumatic experiences isn’t inherently therapeutic. This is because it can trigger emotional flooding and re-experiencing of the trauma.

What I’ve learned from working with trauma

So you may want to know, if healing is not about describing painful memories, what is it about?

When people work with me, the therapy process usually involves these areas:

• Safety and stability: It’s crucial that you feel safe and grounded before we work on helping you to face traumatic memories. I help you to develop coping and emotional regulation strategies. Education about traumatic responses also helps.
• Integrating not just recalling: It’s important to work on safely acknowledging your past, not just remembering it. Once you place trauma in the context of your past, it becomes a smaller part of your life.
• Fostering growth: Now, this isn’t about denying the pain of what happened. It’s about recognizing how you’ve grown and that you’re allowed to have a future that’s not solely defined by your past.

So overall it’s normal to want your experiences to be acknowledged and validated by evidence. And it might feel like only clear memories provide this. But given the nature of traumatic memory, your body and emotions are equally valid indicators of your past experience. And even though it may seem like they’re the same – remembering and healing can be quite different.

I hope that you found this blog helpful. For more about safety in trauma therapy read my other blog here:

What is Trauma and Trauma Therapy?

Reaching out for support is a big step and reading this blog is a good place start. I hope you found it useful and validating. But if you’re looking for personalised trauma therapy, please visit my website where you can find full details of my services and/or book a complimentary call with me here.