Lifespan Integration
Lifespan Integration (LI) is a therapeutic method created in the United States in 2002. It is a body-based therapy which relies on the ability of the body-mind system to heal itself. This approach is based on the repetition of a chronological list of memories from birth to today. It aims at improving the neural integration and deep healing of people of all ages and with a wide range of therapeutic issues.
Origin
The Lifespan Integration therapy has been developed by an American psychotherapist, Peggy Pace. She received a degree in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1969. She then studied counseling Psychology and graduated from the University of Antioch in 1985.
Peggy Pace developed the Lifespan Integration approach through her work with her clients. She explained that during a session in 2002, a patient remained stuck in a past trauma. By remembering a memory experienced at the age of 6, the patient dissociated from her adult self. When Peggy Pace asked her age, the client answered in a small voice: "I'm 6 years old," whereas she was actually 40. Peggy Pace decided to prove to this little girl that time had passed, allowing her to chronologically visualize different scenes of her story, from the traumatic event to the current session. Following this experience, the client was amazed by the deep changes she was experiencing every day. And Peggy Pace reiterated this experience to other clients.
Peggy Pace observed deep clinical changes with the clients who benefited from this new method of visualizing cue memories of their lives. She decided to undertake a review of neuroscience literature in order to understand the mechanisms of the brain that could explain these clinical evolutions.
Peggy Pace published her first book on the therapeutic method of Lifespan Integration (LI) in 2003 : Connecting ego states through time, lifespan integration” [1]
Currently, more than 3,500 Lifespan Integration therapists are trained worldwide.
Therapy principles
The LI approach is built on a fundamental observation: remembering a trauma activates sensations in the body. The body seems stuck at the time of the painful event whereas the rational part of the brain knows that the situation is over. It is explained by the fact that a trauma leads to a failure of neural integration.
The aim of LI therapy is to allow the brain to assimilate the information at a neural level and soothe the sensations in the body by making it realize that it is no longer in the traumatic situation.
The LI therapist repeats a list of chronological memories from the client's life from the trauma to the day of the consultation. That visualization allows the client to overcome the traumatic event by showing his/her body-mind system that it actually survived.
The integration of the trauma at the neuronal level is possible thanks to the neurosplasticity of the brain. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to restructure neuronally throughout life. [2] LI is also based on Hebb's neuroscientific postulate that "neurons that fire together wire together".
During LI therapy, active imagination is used. This part of the approach relies on the neuroscience research of the 1990s, showing that the brain does not differentiate between what it actually experiences and what it imagines. [3]
LI therapy is built on research that postulates that the neural integration of the developing child develops through the co-construction of the autobiographical narrative between parent and child. [4]
The cue list
The main tool of LI is the timeline of memories. It consists of a list of memories from the client’s life beginning at birth and to the day of the session. The rapid repetition of this timeline is at the heart of all LI protocols. The client can create this tool alone or get help from the therapist. The list is composed of at least one to three memories per year of the patient’s life, since his/her first memory (often around two years old, when explicit memory starts).
During the repetitions of the timeline, other memories spontaneously emerge from the patient's memory and are integrated neurologically.
The different protocols
The Basic Protocol. During this protocol, the client visualizes the "movie" of his/her life. Eight to ten repetitions are needed to allow the mind-body system to assimilate memories as bygone past events.
The Standard Protocol. During this protocol, the therapist uses a technique called the "affect bridge". From the present body sensations, the client can reach a source memory connected to his/her current problem. Through imaginary, the therapist allows the client to revisit his/her past and helps him to bring everything he/she needs to free him/her from this past. For example, the therapist can guide the client in expressing anger that would have been repressed at the time of the event. Once the past is repaired, the therapist proves to the client that the event is over by accompanying him/her during the repetition of the timeline from the past situation to the present consultation. Visualizing that panoramic view of the client’s life allows his/her mind-body system to realize that time has gone, that he/she has survived these memories and that life is different today. In this protocol, a minimum of five repetitions of the timeline is required.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Protocol. This protocol is used with clients who experience post-traumatic stress symptoms in order to soothe them. Ten to twelve repetitions of the timeline since the trauma to the present day are necessary to make the mind-body system aware that it is no longer stuck in the past.
Attunement Protocol. The aim of this protocol is to heal various attachment disorders by “re-writing” and “re-living” the early conditions and integrating the new positive states generated by the client-therapist dyade.
Birth Protocol. This protocol repairs birth trauma.
Protocol of Pre-Verbal Trauma. This protocol heals the traumas of early life, which means traumatic events that took place before the child could speak.
See also
- Posttraumatic stress disorder
Notes
1. [1] Pace, Peggy. 2012. Lifespan Integration: Connecting Ego States through Time. La Vergne, TN: Eirene Imprint. 2. [2] Begley, Sharon (2009). The Plastic Mind. New York, NY.: Ballantine Books. pp. 136–137. 3. [3] Schwartz, Jeffrey M.; Begley, Sharon (2002). The mind and the brain: Neuroplasticity and the power of mental force. New York, NY.: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. p. 217. 4. [4] Siegel, Daniel J. (1999). The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. New York, NY.: The Guilford Press. pp. 306–317.
References
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Norton and Co. Damasio, Antonio R. 1994. Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY: Grosset / Putnam.
Hannah, Barbara. 1981. Encounters with the soul: Active imagination as developed by C.G. Jung. Santa Monica, CA: Sigo Press.
Sous la direction de Joanna Smith. 2017. Applications cliniques de l’ICV. Dunod.
Johnson, Robert A. 1986. Inner work: Using dreams & active imagination for personal growth. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers
LeDoux, Joseph. 2002. Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam. North Atlantic Books.
LeDoux, Joseph. 1996. The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Levine, Peter A. 1997. Waking the tiger, Healing trauma: The innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
LeDoux, Joseph. 2002. Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam.
North Atlantic Books.
Pace, Peggy. 2012. Lifespan Integration: Connecting Ego States through Time. La Vergne, TN: Eirene Imprint.
Schore, Allan N. 2003. Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Schwartz, Jeffrey M. & Begley, Sharon. 2002. The mind and the brain: Neuroplasticity and the power of mental force. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Siegel, Daniel J. 1999. The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Siegel, Daniel J. 2011. Mindsight: the new science of personal transformation. New York: Bantam Books.
Schore, A.N. 1994. Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Thorpe, Catherine. 2012. The success and strategies of Lifespan Integration, An overview and client stories. Broché.
Watkins, J.G., The Affect Bridge: A hypnoanalytic technique, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 19, pp. 21-27, 1971.