Memory

The hippocampus is important in processing information, explicit memory, and the transfer of information to the prefrontal cortex (Coates, 2010; Miehls, 2011; Montgomery, 2013). However, the hippocampus is also vulnerable to stress hormones, such as norepinephrine and cortisol, which interfere with its functioning. Although in the short-term neurohormones such as norepinephrine can potentiate the strength of a memory, van der Kolk (1994) asserted that the heightened release of these hormones interferes with hippocampal functioning, inhibiting cognitive evaluation of experience and interfering with memory storage. Under conditions of stress, memories are then stored as somatic sensations and visual images (Applegate & Shapiro, 2005; Cozolino, 2010; Miehls, 2011). Although the client’s memory processing may potentially be impaired due to stress, so too may the therapist’s. Commonly, trauma therapists will report blanking out on a client’s story or “forgetting” large chunks of a client’s history. Further, as Pearlman and Saakvitne (1995) argue, the client’s trauma story may “reawaken the therapist’s own memories and consequent strong feelings” (p. 310). This makes sense when we grasp the idea of implicit memory and the intersubjective context of psychotherapy (Rasmussen, 2005). Implicit memory, or nondeclarative memory, though revealed in our patterns of behavior, is mostly inaccessible to conscious awareness, constituting a vast structure beneath the surface (Cozolino, 2010). A. N. Schore (2012) wrote that “spontaneous nonverbal transference-countertransference interactions at a preconscious level represent implicit right brain-to-right brain nonverbal communications of fast-acting, automatic, regulated and especially dysregulated bodily based stressful emotional states between patient and therapist” (p. 128).