In contrast to “ordinary” memories (both good and bad), which are capable of changing or being changed over time, traumatic memories are fixed and static. They are imprints from past overwhelming experience, deep impressions carved into the sufferer’s brain, body, and psyche. These harsh and frozen imprints do not easily yield to change, nor do they readily update with current information. The “fixity” of imprints prevents us from forming new strategies and extracting new meanings, so it can feel like there is no fresh, ever-changing now and no real flow in life. In this way, the past lives on in the present, it is never dead, it’s not even past. Rather, it lives as various and diverse fears, phobias, physical symptoms, and illnesses. Dealing with traumatic memories in therapy takes time, and can be liberating.
