Treating trauma memories reduces the distress of related memories

Trauma therapists must make clinical judgments about what order to target memories for treatment.Study 1, of 146 self-identified trauma therapists, found a variety of reported strategies for deciding whichtrauma memory to treat first, including letting the client choose, treating the memory that caused thesymptoms, or working in chronological order. Study 2a, of 159 therapists in eye movement desensitizationand reprocessing (EMDR) or progressive counting workshops, examined the impact on the distress level ofa later memory after treating an earlier related memory. Study 2b, of 114 therapists in EMDR or progressivecounting workshops, examined the impact on the distress level of an earlier memory after treating a laterrelated memory. In each condition, the distress of the untreated memory was reduced; the effect wasgreater when treating the earlier memory. In study 3, 3 therapy clients rated the distress level of eachtrauma memory at the beginning of each session, as the trauma memories were being resolved inchronological order. The distress level of many (but not all) later memories did go down following theresolution of earlier memories, and this effect persisted over time. These findings suggest that treatingtrauma memories can reduce the distress level of related memories, with a greater effect when treatingearlier memories.

Ricky Greenwald
Scott D. McClintock
Andrew Seubert

Greenwald, R., McClintock, S. D., & Seubert, A. (2026). Treating trauma memories reduces the distress of related memories. Journal of EMDR Practice & Research, 20(23). https://doi.org/10.34133/jemdr