Predictive processing flash: a new hope for trauma therapy

What would you say if someone sat in front of you and told you that you could rapidly resolve a disturbing memory, including traumatic memories? To one-up that, what about resolving the memory in a way that means you don't have to talk about it, while also focusing on something that makes you happy? I’m here to tell you that, for some people, this may be possible.

Flash approaches to psychotherapy are a relatively new development in trauma therapy. With a growing body of strong, peer-reviewed research from different corners of the globe, flash offers an exciting opportunity for clients to process traumatic memories in a way that can be emotionally tolerated, offering a gentler alternative for those who are overwhelmed by EMDR.

There are different versions of flash, but this article focuses on predictive processing flash (PPF) therapy.

What is predictive processing?

PPF works through a process called memory reconsolidation. For a long time, it was believed that memories stayed the way they were stored, but this has since been proven wrong.

Memory reconsolidation is the process that changes how a memory is stored, and when we change how a memory is stored, we change the predictions and rules about ourselves associated with it.

Memory consolidation is like when you open a file on your computer, edit it, and then save it:

1. You open the file and quickly highlight a snippet of the disturbance: your brain opens the file and quickly highlights a snippet of the disturbing part of the memory, which holds unhelpful predictions and rules.
2. Making changes: While it is highlighted, you can edit that snippet to remove the disturbance in that part of the memory.
3. Saving the new version: The edited snippets of disturbance are saved into memory, and the associated unhealthy rules and predictions are shifted, and their impact disappears.

The predictive mind 'edits' unhelpful predictions/rules by providing disconfirming information to the disturbance, creating a prediction error that prompts our brain to naturally update our rules and predictions about the world. In other words, PPF lets you flood the snippets of disturbance with opposite emotions to update negative predictions and turn them into positive ones.

Understanding prediction errors

Imagine this: you walk into your home, and you hear water running in the kitchen. Your rulebook/book of predictions tells you that the tap must be running. You walk into the kitchen and don't see the tap running, but you see a leak coming through the ceiling.

As a result, your brain notices a prediction error and rewrites the rulebook/book of predictions. Your old rule was that the sound of running water in the kitchen must be the tap, and the new rule becomes "sometimes, unexpected leaks can occur in the kitchen"; leading you to be more cautious about the sound of running water coming from the kitchen and maybe the bathroom.

How might predictive processing flash help trauma?

In the context of trauma, it might look a little more like this:

You have a disturbing memory that has led you to hold the prediction, "I am not worthy of love". In PPF, we work through the memory, one snippet at a time, highlighting the disturbance.

Using PPF, we can resolve the snippets of disturbance in the memory, and new predictions are naturally formed, for example: "I am worthy of love/their behaviour towards me was not reflective of my worthiness for love."

When we change our predictions, we can change the way we view the world around us. When our nervous system experiences something that goes against our rulebook of what we should be experiencing, the old rule gets rewritten because a prediction error has occurred, which is how we can change the unhealthy rules and predictions we hold about ourselves.

For many people looking for trauma therapy, predictive processing flash can be groundbreaking. PPF may offer people who have experienced trauma a way to help their nervous systems respond differently to distressing memories, potentially in a relatively quick and manageable way compared to some other therapeutic approaches.