April 2026 – Page 2 – Australia Resource Therapy Institute

April 14, 2026April 13, 2026

Rewriting the Past: Memory Reconsolidation in Practice with Parts Work

An abstract, metaphorical visualization of the neurobiological window during memory reconsolidation in the parts work model Resource Therapy, showing two light beams intersecting and creating new, integrated neural pathways.

In contemporary therapy, memory reconsolidation (Ecker et al., 2012) offers a hopeful, evidence-informed framework. It suggests our clinical aim can go beyond teaching clients to manage their “weather”; we can help the brain update the “charts” it once used to navigate old emotional storms and steer clear of the rocks.

What is Memory Reconsolidation?

When a significant emotional memory is reactivated, there is a brief neurobiological window where that memory becomes “plastic.” If a mismatching, corrective experience is introduced during this window, the old learning can be revised rather than simply layered over with new coping strategies (Ecker et al., 2012; Lane et al., 2015).

Instead of “white-knuckling” through triggers, the goal is for the old emotional “alarm” to stop ringing so loudly.

For clients navigating attachment wounds or long-standing feelings of rejection or shame, this process offers a path toward lasting change.

How does Resource Therapy as a Parts Model Work with this Science?

Resource Therapy (RT) is an advanced, trauma-informed parts work model that aligns naturally with memory reconsolidation. We work with Resource States, our personality parts, the inner “crew members” who carry specific emotional learnings from earlier chapters of life.

In practice, facilitating memory reconsolidation using RT involves a clear, structured flow:

Vivifying the Part: We invite the relevant Resource State to come “on deck.” By bringing its feelings, beliefs, and body sensations into conscious awareness, we enter that “plastic” neurobiological window.
Bridging to the Sensitising Event: We follow the part back to the Initial Sensitising Event (ISE). This is where the core learning formed. The moment this part “decided” it wasn’t safe to be seen or that they weren’t “enough.”
Creating a Mismatch Experience: RT’s structured actions allow for a new emotional experience. This is more than a chat about safety; it is an embodied shift. The “vaded” state feels accompanied and protected, directly contradicting the original experience of abandonment or fear.
Consolidating the Shift: We then help more resourced adult parts step forward. This supports the client in responding to present-day life with a “Captain” who is fit for the current conditions, rather than a part stuck in a past storm.

four-step infographic illustrating the clinical process of Memory Reconsolidation within Resource Therapy: Vivifying the Part, Bridging to the ISE, Mismatch Experience, and Consolidating Change. — The flow chart of parts work in the neurobiology of psychological change, as applied with Resource Therapy

Evidence-Informed, Not trendy

At the Australia Resource Therapy Institute (ARTI), “evidence-informed” isn’t a buzzword. It’s about ensuring our work in the room is in alignment with how the brain facilitates change, carefully, ethically, and within our scope of psychology practice.

Our training programs emphasise clinical safety, pacing, and clear protocols. While RT is a powerful standalone modality, it also integrates beautifully with EMDR, Imago, DBR, Schema Therapy, Arts Therapy, and Somatic work.

Join the Crew in 2026

As you plan your professional development, consider the depth of change you wish to offer. Are you helping your clients manage their symptoms, or are you facilitating a deeper update of their internal operating systems?

If you are curious about parts work, memory-reconsolidation-aligned ways of working, you are warmly invited to explore Resource Therapy training with Chris and me.

Discover our 2026 Clinical Qualification and Bali Certification programs here.

References

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. Routledge.

Lane, R. D., Ryan, L., Nadel, L., & Greenberg, L. (2015). Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy: New insights from brain science. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 69, 47–59.

Emmerson, G. (2014). Resource Therapy: The Complete Guide with Case Examples and Transcripts. Old Golden Point Press.

April 12, 2026April 12, 2026

The Myth of the “Difficult Client” .

Resource Therapy concept image showing a carousel of different personality parts representing Resource States in a therapy setting, illustrating the question “which part is at the helm” with Australia Resource Therapy Institute branding.

Have you ever noticed this happen in your therapy sessions –

A client speaks with clarity. They know what matters. They describe their patterns with clarity, and precision. And then, in a heartbeat, the weather changes.

April 6, 2026April 6, 2026

When Every Part Has a Story: Supporting Healing in Resource Therapy

Clinical Resource Therapist with a client discussing Resource Therapy in session

As therapists, we sit with complexity every day. Clients often describe feeling pulled in different directions. One part of them wants change, another holds back. One part longs for connection, another expects harm.

We are often witnessing a system of resource states. It is not resistance. These states do exactly what they have learned to do to manage and survive.

For me, Resource Therapy (RT) has offered a way of understanding this. It is not something to fix. It is something to listen to. My work has shaped how I understand the internal system.

Clinical Resource Counsellor in her office using parts work with a client — Jaclyn Hall, Clinical Resource Therapist and Trainer

It has also shaped how I respond to the present resource state. When we slow down, what becomes clear is this: every resource state has a story.

I’ve never been drawn to ways of working that centre heavily on diagnosis or pathologising. It’s not that understanding patterns isn’t important but framing people through what is “wrong” with them has never felt like it honours the depth of what they’ve lived through.

I’ve always been interested in understanding what’s happened to a person, how they’ve survived, and what has supported them to get through.

Importantly, what they are now wanting to shift so they can live from a place of their own choosing, rather than from responses that may no longer be serving them.

Resource Therapy aligns deeply with this.

Resource Therapy Diagnosis

While RT includes classification of resource states, I don’t experience this as labelling the person. Rather, classification helps guide the therapeutic process. It supports the therapist in understanding the function of the part. This knowledge helps to select appropriate RT therapeutic actions.

At its core, RT is concerned with understanding function, not assigning fault.

RT understands personality as a system of resource states. At any given time, one resource state is in the conscious, the part that is present and engaging. Each resource state holds its own experiences, responses, and role within the system.

Each part has a purpose. Parts outdated behaviours or heavy emotions can easily be understood in the context of what a person has lived through.

This has influenced the way I listen. Rather than moving too quickly toward change, I am listening for which state is in the conscious, and what that state is ready to change today.

In my opinion, one of the most meaningful moments in therapy is when a resource state feels understood.

Often, what presents is not just a thought or behaviour, but a lived internal experience that has been carried, at times, for many years.

A look, a tone, a moment of disconnection can activate something younger, perhaps a resource state holding the experience of not mattering, of being too much, or not enough.

A state that learned to retreat, fight to be heard, to stay quiet, or to hold everything inside.

When we offer compassionate responses, like saying, “That makes so much sense… this state has taken on this role, and has worked to protect in this way,” we can notice a shift.

The system may soften. The urgency may reduce. Shame appears to lessen. Not because anything has been “fixed,” but because something this part carries has been understood and acknowledged. This often leads to opening a doorway to deeper healing.

My Experience of this Parts Therapy

In my Clinical work as a therapist and supervisor of counsellors, I have had the privilege of hearing the stories of highly insightful clients who have understood their history. Many who could see the links between what has happened and how they respond now.

Yet, they have continued to seek more from their healing journey, but something hadn’t quite clicked.

What I have come to understand is that insight alone does not necessarily lead to change. Why? Because insight often comes from a different resource state, knowledge and not the part holding the distress and emotional pain.

Resource Therapy provides a way of working directly with the resource state holding the experience, which is where shifts may begin to occur.

This is a key component to therapeutic change.

This is especially vital in trauma work, where protective resource states are often strong. They may avoid, distract, control, or limit access to distressing material. From the outside, these may come across as barriers.

Within RT, they are understood as serving an important function. These states have developed for a reason. They are doing what they have learned to do, to protect the system.

In RT, we work with them in a trauma-informed manner. We seek to understand their role. We respect their function. We support the conditions for other resource states to come into the conscious when appropriate. This supports safety, pacing, and readiness within the work.

What this can feel like internally is not always easy to capture in clinical language. At times, it is better understood through the expressed lived experience held within a resource state.

Here is a poem written from my heart:

I have a need,
I ask for care.
I see your look,
and freeze mid-air.

I know that pain—
the silent sting,
“I’m inconvenient,
I don’t mean a thing.”

“Why don’t I matter?”
races through my mind.
I shrink, retreat,
no safe space to find.

A smile appears:
“hold your head up high,”
but inside echoes
the young one’s cry.

Healing whispers:
You can hold them now.
Call on your parts,
they will show you how.

To sit with pain,
release the shame,
to hold them close,
and speak their name.

Your worth is not
their gaze, their tone—
your feelings are valid,
they are your own.

Sitting quietly, strengthening inside,
finding the strength that was always mine,

Each breath a reminder,
each moment proof—
healing is living
your authentic truth.

Resource Therapy has deeply influenced the way I understand both people and the process of therapeutic change.

It has deepened my focus on listening to the system, to the resource state that is present, and to what may be needed in that moment.

We participate in this work by honouring the story of each Resource State. When that story is deeply heard, something can shift. There can be less shame, more compassion and a greater capacity for change. Not by overriding the system, but by working with it.

Written by Jaclyn Hall, Mental Health Professional
PACFA Accredited Clinical Counsellor and Supervisor
Advanced Clinical Resource Therapist and Trainer
EMDRAA Accredited EMDR Practitioner
Founder and Director: Calm, Connect & Heal Therapeutic Services (Click link for Jaclyn’s website)

Thanks, Jaclyn, we appreciate your sharing your vast experience and knowledge with this insightful guest article. We appreciate hearing from other therapists’ parts therapy adventures. Want to share yours? Reach out today.

Want to learn the latest developments in parts therapy? Join us at our next training, with online and hybrid options to suit your needs. Click here for Professional Parts Therapy workshops.