Psychological trauma therapies in the light of neuroscience. Memory reconsolidation and a new paradigm of the therapeutic process

In the 2000s, neuroscientists found that old memories become unstable again and susceptible to change when they are reactivated (reconsolidation). In particular, their experiments have shown that it is possible to reduce the emotions of a memory when it is reconsolidated. This discovery opens up interesting therapeutic perspectives for psychological disorders generated by a memory carrying intense negative emotions, such as psychological trauma. In this article, we will discuss the effectiveness of psychotherapies for trauma—prolonged exposure, EMDR, and hypnosis—in the light of this new paradigm of the therapeutic process.