Lifespan Integration Therapy

LI is a therapeutic approach to resolving past trauma and the wounds caused by trauma by dealing with the underlying trauma. It focuses on the connection between the mind and body to bring healing of trauma.

In LI, a counselor helps a person recall memories of events from their past and creates a timeline of their life. Then it is read aloud to the client. Reading these memory cues back to the client and leading them through their timeline (or lifespan) several times has the effect of rewiring the neural pathways in the brain. Christian counselors at California Christian Counseling can do Lifespan Integration Therapy with you to alleviate the pain of the past.

Lifespan Integration therapy was initially developed to assist adult survivors of childhood abuse, helping them overcome the effects of that trauma and any accompanying issues, such as low self-esteem. LI therapy is used to help people overcome other mental and emotional health concerns such as neglect, abuse, depression, attachment issues, eating disorders, and anxiety.

LI therapy helps people to become more accepting of themselves, change their attachment patterns, regulate their emotions better, and have more meaningful relationships with others.

When a person experiences trauma, the traumatic event and the memory of it are stored differently in the brain, which creates or encodes a separate neural network around it. The original trauma can resurface if a person encounters circumstances similar to or reminiscent of the original traumatic event. While one’s mind can distinguish past events from the present, one’s body and nervous system responds as if that original traumatic event were reoccurring here and now. This can be debilitating.

In Lifespan Integration therapy, the counselor asks the client to write a timeline of their memories, one for each year of their life. This creates a baseline, and the counselor will walk with the client through these memories one by one from the past to the present day.

The act of repeating these memory cues rewires the neural pathways in the brain and helps one’s body to realize that the event is well and truly in the past. In effect, LI therapy teaches your body to accept that the traumatic event is over, which opens the way for healing and relief.

The memory cues work this way: Instead of writing the whole story behind a memory, a simple picture of the moment is grabbed by a few words. For example, instead of narrating when another child pushed you off the swing set in childhood and you got hurt, you can simply write “That time on the swing set.”

When the counselor reads the memory cue, they don’t even have to know what the story is behind it, unless you choose to go into it yourself. Instead of lingering on memories, including traumatic ones, reading the memory cues at a rate of about one memory every couple of seconds means that one doesn’t have to dwell for extended periods of time on each memory.

In this way, one isn’t retraumatized by having to narrate the painful memory or talk about it for a long time. As the memory cues are read out, the memory is reencoded and stored in such a way that it is no longer triggering or overpowering, even though it may be an unpleasant memory.

Staunch supporters of LI argue that cases of deeply entrenched PTSD will resolve after a couple of sessions using LI. This allows the person to return to their normal functioning while reducing the symptoms of the trauma.

The approach is fast, effective, and economical because of the minimal number of sessions required. While it has been shown to be effective, there are few studies and limited empirical evidence to support these claims.

Additionally, LI is also most effective in certain circumstances. For instance, because of how LI works, and the techniques used, people that are experiencing issues with their memory or other forms of cognitive decline may not benefit as much from LI. LI is effective, but like any other therapeutic technique, it has its limitations.

Next Steps

If you have experienced a past traumatic event that has ripple effects in your daily life, Lifespan Integration Therapy at California Christian Counseling may be a helpful option for you. Reach out today to find out more about Lifespan Integration Therapy in California and how you can begin addressing trauma in your life.