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This Flash-based memory reconsolidation approach appears to work by very briefly bringing a wounding memory into consciousness and then immediately pushing it out of direct awareness using a containering, distracting, or distancing exercise. While the bad memory is in working memory but not in direct awareness, we focus on a positive scene/process and periodically visually disrupt our concentration on that positive scene using a series of guided and rapid blinks. The therapist verifies that the positive scene is in focus and is not intersecting with the negative memory in any way. Over the course of 10-30 minutes (typically), this cycle of blinking in the calm scene and periodically checking the memory for distress can help move the memory from hot and activated memory space into more normal and less activated memory storage. By the end of the process, the memory typically: feels like it happened when it did, does not cause somatic activation, elicits more positive cognitions about the self or the experience, and no longer appears as intrusive symptoms (flashbacks, trauma-related dreams, etc.). This technique can do all of this without the client having to activate the memory significantly, with minimal preparatory resourcing, with minimal client distress, and with minimal client expenditure of energy in session.
If you have limited time, start with the four items below in bold first.
The Four Blinks Version of Flash Detailed Script:
- Detailed and Short Script (Word file)
Video Tutorials of Each Step of Four Blinks Version of Flash (Under Five Minutes Each)
- Step One: Develop a Container
- Step Two: Develop a Calm Scene
- Step Three: Identify the Memory and Container It
- Step Four: Blinks in the Calm Scene
- Step Five: Check the Memory and Container It
- Step Six: Clearing Out Residual Distress
- Very Helpful: Navigating Problems with Four Blinks Version of Flash (36 minutes)
- A Shorter Overview of Four Blinks Approach to Flash (12 minutes)
Video Demos
Troubleshooting
- Navigating Problems with Four Blinks Version Flash
- Clients Who Struggle to Visualize (Flash and EMDR)
- Managing Activation in Flash Approaches
- Strategies for Target Memory Selection (New)
- Managing Body Activation in Flash Approaches (New)
- Working With Client’s Parts in Flash Therapy (New)
- The Catcher’s Mitt Metaphor in Flash Therapy (New)
- Effectively Managing Flashbacks in Session and Between Sessions
- Join the Flash Sandbox on Facebook and Practice This with Other Therapists
- Informal and Free Training and Consultation Offered Monthly
Common Questions
- What is Different About the Four Blinks Version of Flash (New)
- Why The Four Blinks Approach to Flash Has an Explicit Container
- Why There is No Bilateral Stimulation, Counting, or Deep Breathing in the Four Blinks Approach to Flash
- If Flash is So Good, Why Not Only Do That?
Videos About Flash-Like Approaches
- Orientation/Overview of Four Blinks Version of Flash (introductory online training video)
- Latest Presentation PowerPoint
- Thoughts about the Mechanism and Active Ingredients in Flash Approaches
- How Flash-Like Approaches are Likely to Transform Global Mental Health in the 21st Century
- Flash is Not a Resource
- Transformative Trauma Therapies are Variations on the Same Dance
- Why We Need Healing Strategies that are Non-Intuitive
- How We Heal: Approaches that Can Turn Resources into Deeply Healing Psychotherapies
- Flash is Also For the Healthy (New)
- Evolutions of Flash Approaches to Healing: A Response to Bruce Ecker
Formal Trainings with CEUs on the Flash Technique
- http://FlashTechnique.com (Phil Manfield, Flash Developer)
- https://www.ticti.org/training/flash/ (Ricky Greenwald, Trauma Institute and Child Trauma Institute)
Four Blinks Version of Flash: An Open Approach To Trauma Reprocessing 