DATE
Saturday, April 25, 2026 | 9 – 11 AM (PT) / 12 -2 PM (ET)
ABSTRACT
At the end of the day, is not memory merely an “illusion”? Indeed, memory is not a fixed entity, but a dynamic process – continuously shaped by every act of recall. Each time we remember, we create and re-create – altering the very essence of what we once knew.
By the same token, however, each time we envision, we create and re-create – reshaping the very essence of what might yet be.
Memory, in this sense, is fortunately not a noun but a verb – ever in flux – a living expression of who we are becoming, not of who we once were.
My focus will be on Model 5 of THE ST★RK METHOD of PSYCHODYNAMIC SYNERGY – a brain-based, quantum-neuroscientific approach to shorter-duration, intensive, and focused treatments that juxtapose “paying attention” to “old bad” narratives with “setting intention” for “new good” ones, in order to rescript and update conditioned, disempowering storylines.
Through the neuroplasticity of memory reconsolidation, memory becomes not just the record of what has been, but the catalyst for what might yet become.
BRIEF BIO
Martha Stark, MD, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, is a holistic (adult and child) psychiatrist and
integrative psychoanalyst in Cambridge MA. Creator/Developer of THE ST★RK METHOD of PSYCHODYNAMIC SYNERGY, Martha is the author of nine influential books that explore the integration of psychodynamic theory with clinical practice, including Relentless Hope: The Refusal to Grieve and the award-winning 1999 Modes of Therapeutic Action: Knowledge, Experience, and Relationship – recipient of Jason Aronson’s prestigious “Book of the Year Award.”
Her works have received widespread acclaim and are considered essential reading in psychoanalytic training institutes and psychodynamic psychotherapy training programs across the US and internationally.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- To explain upon the brain-based concept of therapeutic memory reconsolidation
- To elaborate upon the healing power of juxtaposing “old remembered bad” with
“new envisioned good”
- To clarify the distinction between memory as a (static) noun and memory as a
(dynamic) verb
PRICE
$20 for session
$20 additional for 2 CEs
Both LIVE and RECORDED for later reviewing.*
*Recording does not include CE credits.
REFERENCES
Beckers T, Kindt M. Memory reconsolidation interference as an emerging treatment for emotional disorders: Strengths, limitations, challenges, and opportunities. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13 (2017), pp. 99-121.
Chen W, Lin X, Li J, Zhang W, Zheng X. Retrieval-extinction as a reconsolidation- based treatment for emotional disorders: Evidence from an extinction retention test shortly after intervention. Behavior Research & Therapy, 139 (2021), Article 103831, 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103831.
Cuijpers M, Reignders M, Huibers MJ. The role of common factors in psychotherapy outcomes. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 15 (2019), pp. 207-231.
Ecker B, Bridges SK. How the science of memory reconsolidation advances the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy. Clinical Social Work Journal, 48 (3)
(2020), pp. 287-300.
Fonagy P., Rost R, Carlyle J, McPherson S, Thomas R, Fearon P, Goldberg D, Taylor D. Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: The Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS). World Psychiatry – 25 September 2015.
Leichsenring F, Leweke F, Klein S, Steinert C. The empirical status of psychodynamic psychotherapy – An update: Bambi’s alive and kicking. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics – April 2015;84(3).
Lilliengren P. Comprehensive compilation of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving psychodynamic treatments and interventions. Research – June 2017.
NB: The Center for Christianity and Psychoanalysis does not exist to promote a single viewpoint or advance one ideological stance. Our intent is to create a space where people from varied theological traditions, clinical orientations, and cultural backgrounds can come together to think, reflect, and learn from one another.
We invite a range of speakers whose scholarship, clinical practice, and theological reflection enrich our community. Their presence with us is not an endorsement of every viewpoint they hold. Rather, our aim is to host thoughtful dialogue across differences—trusting that engagement with differing perspectives deepens our search for understanding and truth.
We are committed to fostering dialogue, not dogma, and to exposing our community to multiple perspectives across both psychoanalytic and Christian theological thought as we continue the ongoing work of integration.
