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ToggleProcedural memory, an integral component of our cognitive architecture, plays a crucial role in shaping our behaviors and responses. In the context of trauma treatment, understanding the mechanisms and implications of procedural memory is essential for fostering healing and resilience. The intricacies of procedural memory have profound implications for trauma recovery within the framework of somatic therapies, especially. And it can just be downright interesting to learn about when you are new to somatic work.
Understanding Procedural Memory
Procedural memory, also known as implicit memory, encompasses the unconscious retention of skills, habits, and learned behaviors (Squire, 2004). Unlike declarative memory, which involves the conscious recall of your shopping list or your partner’s birthday, procedural memory operates beneath conscious awareness, influencing our actions and responses in a habitual way.
The encoding and retrieval of procedural memories involve distinct neural pathways, primarily centered in the basal ganglia and cerebellum (Doyon et al., 2009). These structures orchestrate motor skills, habit formation, and emotional responses, laying the groundwork for automatic behaviors and conditioned responses.
Neuroplasticity and Procedural Memory
Neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to reorganize and adapt in response to experience, underpins the formation and modification of procedural memories (Kolb & Whishaw, 2015). Through repetitive practice and experience, neural circuits become strengthened or weakened, shaping our behavioral repertoire over time. This inherent plasticity offers promising avenues for trauma intervention and recovery.
Traumatic experiences can significantly impact procedural memory, often leading to the development of maladaptive behaviors and coping mechanisms (Brewin et al., 2010). Learned behaviors such as breath retention, fawning via passive eye gazing, and chronic clenching of the jaw are but a few types of procedural that almost always exist as a response to an overwhelming event. Heightened arousal, emotional dysregulation, and dissociation, common features of trauma, can shape procedural learning, reinforcing patterns of avoidance, hypervigilance, or numbing.
Somatic Therapies and Procedural Memory
Somatic therapies provide a holistic approach to trauma treatment by addressing implicit memories stored within the body. By engaging in experiential techniques such as mindfulness, breathwork, and movement, individuals can access and process implicit memories held in procedural memory networks, fostering healing and integration.
Mindfulness practices cultivate present-moment awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance, offering a pathway to disrupt automatic patterns encoded in procedural memory (Hölzel et al., 2011). By observing bodily sensations and emotional responses without reactivity, individuals can gradually disentangle from trauma-related conditioning and cultivate new, adaptive ways of being.
Breathwork techniques, such as paced breathing and diaphragmatic breathing, can modulate the autonomic nervous system, promoting relaxation and restoring balance to dysregulated procedural memory networks (Jerath et al., 2006). By regulating physiological arousal, breathwork facilitates the integration of fragmented procedural memories and fosters a sense of safety and control.
Embodied movement practices, including yoga, dance, and conscious exercise, offer avenues for renegotiating trauma held within the body (Payne et al., 2015). Through rhythmic movement and expressive gestures, individuals can discharge stored tension, regulate affective states, and reclaim agency over their bodily experiences, facilitating the integration of fragmented procedural memories.
Polyvagal Theory and Somatic Therapies
Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, elucidates the role of the autonomic nervous system in shaping responses to threat and safety (Porges, 2011). Porges discovered that we access a specific part of our autonomic nervous system in order to engage with others: social engagement. The ability to access this state is often challenging for those with a large amount of trauma in their nervous system and the disruptive procedural memories that come with it.
Somatic therapies informed by polyvagal principles (everyone at Somatic Spiritual Counseling loves Porges!) aim to regulate physiological states, promote social engagement, and foster a sense of safety essential for healing procedural memory imprints of trauma. Polyvagal infomed somatic work includes manual behavior changes to access the appropriate nerves that lead to more openness of perception, sure. But more importantly, it involves developing a secure relationship with a clinician who can also access these socially engaged
Clinical research and case studies provide compelling evidence for the efficacy of somatic therapies in addressing procedural memory dysfunction in trauma survivors (van der Kolk, 2015). Integrating mindfulness, breathwork, and movement into somatic therapies can facilitate the processing and integration of implicit trauma memories, leading to profound shifts in well-being and resilience.
Procedural memory serves as a critical pathway to understanding and addressing trauma within the context of somatic therapies. By harnessing the plasticity of procedural memory through mindfulness, breathwork, and movement practices, individuals can reclaim agency over their embodied experiences and cultivate resilience in the face of adversity. As we continue to explore the intricate interplay between procedural memory and trauma recovery, somatic therapies offer a promising framework for healing and transformation.
Would you like to learn more about the nervous system and somatic therapy?
References
- Brewin, C. R., Lanius, R. A., Novac, A., Schnyder, U., & Galea, S. (2010). Reformulating PTSD for DSM-V: Life after Criterion A. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(1), 5–14.
- Doyon, J., Bellec, P., Amsel, R., Penhune, V., Monchi, O., Carrier, J., & Benali, H. (2009). Contributions of the basal ganglia and functionally related brain structures to motor learning. Behavioral Brain Research, 199(1), 61–75.
- Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 537–559.
- Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. (2006). Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: Neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow deep breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system. Medical Hypotheses, 67(3), 566–571.
- Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2015). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (7th ed.). Worth Publishers.
- Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015). Somatic experiencing: Using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 93.
- Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). W. W. Norton & Company.
- Squire, L. R. (2004). Memory systems of the brain: A brief history and current perspective. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 82(3), 171–177.
- van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books.