TECHNIQUES USED IN RMT

Many therapists engaged in recovered memory therapy believe that adult problems, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, relationship problems, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, etc are often caused by a specific form of childhood abuse. Memories of that abuse are often believed to have been repressed so that they cannot be recollected. Even though the abuse is not remembered in regular memory, it generates some of the above symptoms in the adult.

Many therapists use a checklists of symptoms likely to surface in adulthood because of the repressed memories. Unfortunately, some of these checklists include so many symptoms that they include most of the adult population as suspected victims/survivors.

In order to recover memories, therapists have used a variety of techniques:

hypnotism
free association
relaxation training
guided imagery and visualizations (taking the client through an imaginary trip)
projective drawing art therapy
dream therapy (analyzing dreams for suggestions of abuse)
age regression (taking the client back in time to early childhood or beyond)
past life regression therapy (taking the client back in time to an earlier lifetime)
"truth serum": use of drugs to enhance recall of memories
automatic writing (having the client write freely without thinking about what they are writing)
having the client imagine abuse that could have happened to them

All of these suggestive therapeutic techniques have been criticized for their ability to create false memories of events that never happened.

When a client first comes to a RMT therapist, she/he sometimes has disconnected partial images of static scenes that are disturbing. It is like having a few pieces of a black and white photo; not enough to show what the scene is all about. If the client has no memories or images at all, then disconnected partial images often appear during therapy. Through the above techniques, additional pieces of the pictures often materialize, until an entire scene (often involving abuse) is recovered. Further therapy recovers more scenes, and scenes in greater detail. Finally, memories of years of abuse are often pieced together. Some therapists recover memories of horrendous abuse extending over a period of years in 80% or more of their clients; a few report 100%.

There is anecdotal evidence that people who recover repressed memories of childhood abuse are often artists, writers, or exhibited levels of creativity above the norm. One source states that "only a few did not fall into that category." We have been unable to find any formal study of this phenomenon which might verify its existence or non-existence. Perhaps the combination of high creativity and suggestive therapeutic techniques combine to make the recovery of memories more likely during therapy.

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