Root Memory Access — Coherence Therapy

Finding the concrete experience in which the emotional knowledge behind the symptom was formed — through the affect bridge or direct inquiry.

Step-by-step guide

Activate the pro-symptom knowledge: "Let's stay with this knowing — 'if I show myself…'"
"When did you first learn this? When did the world become arranged like that?"
If no concrete memory comes: "How old were you? Who was around?"
Use the affect bridge: "This feeling — where else is it familiar? Where does it lead?"
When the memory is found — explore: what happened? What did the child understand?
Link the root experience to the current knowledge: "Here is where this knowing comes from"

When to use

After the integration of the pro-symptom position
In preparation for reconsolidation

Key phrases

The sentence we just found did not arrive out of nothing. There was a first time it became true. Let's let the body lead: this feeling — where does it take you? How old are you there? Who is in the room?

Follow-up questions

Can you let a picture come, even a small one?

What does the child in the picture understand in that moment?

What decision about the world does the child make there?

What did the child need that was not there?

Alternative phrasings

If no concrete scene arises, a cluster of small moments is enough.

If the memory is overwhelming, we slow down and build safety first.

Warnings

⚠️ The root experience is not necessarily a "trauma". It can be an ordinary episode that for the child became proof of "how the world is".

Source: Ecker & Hulley, 1996; Ecker, Ticic & Hulley, 2012