When the Past Hijacks the Present

As therapists, we often witness this collision of past and present. Clients respond with disproportionate rage to a partner’s delay, or spiral into despair after a routine disagreement. Sometimes, they cannot explain why an ordinary situation leaves them trembling—or why an innocuous touch triggers nausea. Beneath these baffling reactions, memory is at work. Not the neatly stored, story-like memory we think of—but implicit memory, imprinted into the nervous system, driving the body to react as though the original threat is happening all over again.

When memory misleads, clients are left reacting to old ghosts—held hostage by echoes of attachment grief or danger long past. This interactive workshop, enriched with case studies and guided demonstrations, offers the tools to decode the body’s narrative and help clients reclaim the safety of the present.

Research confirms that memory is not a neutral recording device; it is adaptive, reconstructive—and deeply fallible. Implicit memory is not a recording—it’s a learned imprint within the nervous system’s reactivity, restimulated outside of conscious awareness. Predictive processing shapes present-day experience by generating expectations based on prior experiences including past trauma. Together, these mechanisms explain why survivors misinterpret safety as danger or vice versa. This distortion is especially pronounced under conditions of perceived threat. Trauma fundamentally disrupts how experience is encoded:

• Persistence: Unwanted emotional and sensory intrusions override the present
• Fragmentation: Critical details are stripped away, leaving disjointed images or bodily unease
• Somatic Fixation: The body becomes the archive—through muscular rigidity, jaw tension, digestive disruption, or an urge to flee—when words are absent

For clients like Emma, the ‘truth’ is not simply about what happened; it is about what the body remembers. When these implicit memory systems are overlooked in therapy, clients can remain trapped – misdiagnosed as resistant, emotionally unstable, or inexplicably stuck. Our goal, as therapists, is not to retrieve perfect facts, but to decode the body’s account and gently restore coherence between perceptions past and present.

What You Will Learn

Drawing on the latest trauma research and attachment-informed somatic practice, Tony will guide you to:

• Recognise When Memory Is Misleading:
  Learn to spot the subtle clues that the past is hijacking the present—whether through a client’s startle response during a seemingly neutral question, a trembling hand when intimacy is discussed, or a sudden sense of nausea at the mention of vulnerability. These reactions are not random—they are implicit memories surfacing, often disguised as ‘mood shifts’ or ‘anxiety.’
• Track the Somatic Story of Memory:
  Develop the capacity to read the body as an active memory system. You will learn to notice and interpret patterns such as jaw clenching, leg stiffness, digestive unease, or an urge to escape the room—understanding how these can represent procedural or activation memories of incomplete actions, powerlessness, entrapment, or fear.
• Distinguish Trauma Memory from Attachment Wounding:
  Gain insight into the different ways sudden trauma and cumulative relational ruptures shape the memory system. You will explore how shock trauma often creates sharp intrusions and dissociative blanks, while attachment wounds tend to veil memory in a mist of disconnection—frequently presenting as persistent patterns of self-doubt, emotional shutdown, behavioural patterns of overreach or relational hypervigilance.
• Use Sensorimotor Micro-Interventions to Restore Present-Moment Safety:
  Discover practical, body-oriented techniques to anchor clients when implicit memory floods their system. Tony will demonstrate how to use small, titrated shifts—tracking breath, grounding feet, or releasing muscular tension—to help clients distinguish there-and-then from here-and-now.
• Bridge Body Memory with Narrative Integration:
  Understand how to support clients in linking their fragmented somatic experiences with their emotional and narrative understanding—restoring a felt sense of coherence without pressuring for exact ‘facts.’

Workshop Overview: A Somatic Approach to Memory Integration
This specialized evening workshop, led by internationally respected Sensorimotor Psychotherapy trainer Tony Buckley, will offer you a refined clinical lens to work with memory as a living, embodied process—particularly when trauma distorts and misleads.

In this interactive three-hour session, we combine theoretical framework, case demonstrations, guided observations, and practical clinical applications. You’ll experience a balance of conceptual understanding and immediately applicable techniques.

“Finally, a trauma approach that addresses what happens when memory itself becomes the problem. My clients with complex trauma histories have found these techniques deeply supportive—opening doors that talk therapy alone couldn’t.” — Sarah Donovan, LCSW, New York

Transformative Outcomes for Your Clients
When therapists learn to work effectively with implicit memory systems, clients experience profound shifts:

• Freedom from emotional reactions that have controlled their lives
• Freedom from the exhausting vigilance of anticipating threats that no longer exist
• Restoration of trust in their own perceptions and experiences
• Capacity to form relationships unclouded by the distortions of past wounds
• Integration of fragmented aspects of self into a coherent, empowered whole

As one client reflected: “For decades, I thought I was crazy or broken because my body kept reacting to dangers that weren’t there. Understanding that my body was remembering, not malfunctioning, changed everything. For the first time, I can truly feel safe in the present.”

Why This Workshop Stands Apart

This is not simply about memory retrieval—it is about memory integration. Tony Buckley brings over 25 years of expertise at the forefront of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy’s comprehensive trauma treatment training. His approach equips therapists to work sensitively with the body as a vital source of both protection and truth—particularly when clients cannot ‘think their way’ to recovery.

The online format allows for an immersive evening of deep clinical exploration from the comfort of your own space. Through case-based teaching and guided reflection, Tony will demonstrate how memory imprints surface in the therapy room—and how we can work with them to free clients from the grip of the past.

Reclaim the Present – Reserve Your Spot Today

Reserve your place now—spaces are limited to preserve high quality engagement.

© nscience 2025 / 26