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Some clients seek out repressed memory counseling because they believe that they have repressed memories. How a therapist or counselor may help a client to recover repressed memories varies depending on the client as well as the client's knowledge or awareness of the memories. (We’ll cover that more below as well as other explanations for repressed memories.)
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Working on unearthing repressed memories goes back to the beginnings of modern psychology. How Does Therapy For Repressed Memories Work? Again, there is not yet much scientific evidence for repressed memories and many conflicting ideas about them are discussed in the fields of psychology and cognitive science. Some psychologists believe that things like phobias and other symptoms of psychological disorders may be the result of repressed memories.
Repressed memories free#
If memory is so painful that you locked it away, why would you want to set it free upon your conscious mind? It sounds scary, and it can be. This is a common question regarding repressed memories. Why Would You Want To Recover Repressed Memories? Critics say that this puts them in the realm of things like "past life regression"-it's an interesting idea with lots of stories, but not yet in the realm of proven fact. Moreover, many repressed memories encountered in therapy can be difficult or even impossible to prove afterward. Of course, how would one conduct a study of repressed memories? You can't collect people who have repressed memories if they haven't encountered them in therapy, and therefore likely have no idea that they exist. On the other hand, a clinical psychologist may have a lot of what's called "anecdotal evidence"-evidence gained from life experience (including their experience of others’ experiences) but not backed by peer reviewed studies and concrete data. For example, we still don’t understand if there are certain symptoms that may manifest that suggest repressed memories.
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However, the mind is capable of many things that we still don't fully understand, so repressing memories may not be out of the picture. On the other hand, some clinical psychologists-those who keep up on research but spend most of their time working with clients –believe strongly in it.Ī pure psychologist tends to have concerns about how the mind, as an organ, would be stimulated to repress a memory. It comes down to what has been known as the “memory wars.” Some "pure psychologists"-those who study this science in the lab but don't work with it in the field-have doubts about the reality of repressed memories. The question of how the mind works and how it would go about repressing a memory brings up an important question: are repressed memories real? It's a rather heavily disputed question. Most of the time, your mind can keep these thoughts at bay by simply ignoring them, and it works to repress memories in a similar manner. If you still don't believe it, think about the last time that you were trying to watch a television program or read a book, but other thoughts kept interrupting you. Most of the time, it isn't because your thoughts are harmful but because you have so many thoughts. It may sound a bit hard to believe, this idea that the mind can pick and choose what it remembers.
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The individual may have other symptoms of the trauma but will not have a memory of the event itself. The basic principle is that some experiences are so hard for the mind to deal with that the mind simply refuses to accept them. You may have come across the idea of repressed memories in a clinical setting but you may have also heard of the idea on television-it's a favorite of soap operas, serious dramas, and daytime talk shows, for example. Click Here To Get Started With BetterHelp What Are Repressed Memories?