While we are on the topic of sharing memory reconsolidation tricks -
Something that been useful to me recently has been remembering that according to memory reconsolidation principles, experiencing an incorrect emotional belief as true is actually necessary for revising it. Then, when I get an impulse to push the wrong-feeling belief out of my mind, I instead take the objecting part or otherwise look for counterevidence and let the counterbelief feel simultaneously true as well. That has caused rapid updates the way Unlocking the Emotional Brain describes.
I think that basically the same kind of thing (don’t push any part out of your mind without giving it a say) has already been suggested in IDC, IFS etc.; but in those, I’ve felt like the framing has been more along the lines of “consider that the irrational-seeming belief may still have an important point”, which has felt hard to apply in cases where I feel very strongly that one of the beliefs is actually just false. Thinking in terms of “even if this belief is false, letting myself experience it as true allows it to be revised” has been useful for those situations.
Then, when I get an impulse to push the wrong-feeling belief out of my mind, I instead take the objecting part or otherwise look for counterevidence and let the counterbelief feel simultaneously true as well. That has caused rapid updates the way Unlocking the Emotional Brain describes.
I’ve had mixed success with using this sort of dissonance based updating in coaching, it seems to work for some people when they have lots of self-trust and love, and feel safe, but otherwise seems to cause the schema to shut down and some amount of distress. This is why I put it much further up on the hierarchy.One thing I’ve had success with is gradually working up to dissonance. I start with a dialogue based method where you switch between two schemas (internal double crux, coherence therapy based memory switching, etc), and start at first with the switch very slow, allowing time to take in the new schema. Then, we start switching faster and faster, until we finally get to the point where its’ so fast we hold both of the schemas at the same time.
While we are on the topic of sharing memory reconsolidation tricks -
Something that been useful to me recently has been remembering that according to memory reconsolidation principles, experiencing an incorrect emotional belief as true is actually necessary for revising it. Then, when I get an impulse to push the wrong-feeling belief out of my mind, I instead take the objecting part or otherwise look for counterevidence and let the counterbelief feel simultaneously true as well. That has caused rapid updates the way Unlocking the Emotional Brain describes.
I think that basically the same kind of thing (don’t push any part out of your mind without giving it a say) has already been suggested in IDC, IFS etc.; but in those, I’ve felt like the framing has been more along the lines of “consider that the irrational-seeming belief may still have an important point”, which has felt hard to apply in cases where I feel very strongly that one of the beliefs is actually just false. Thinking in terms of “even if this belief is false, letting myself experience it as true allows it to be revised” has been useful for those situations.
I’ve had mixed success with using this sort of dissonance based updating in coaching, it seems to work for some people when they have lots of self-trust and love, and feel safe, but otherwise seems to cause the schema to shut down and some amount of distress. This is why I put it much further up on the hierarchy.One thing I’ve had success with is gradually working up to dissonance. I start with a dialogue based method where you switch between two schemas (internal double crux, coherence therapy based memory switching, etc), and start at first with the switch very slow, allowing time to take in the new schema. Then, we start switching faster and faster, until we finally get to the point where its’ so fast we hold both of the schemas at the same time.
This is a great one! Added to the post.