What is Flash Technique?

The Flash Technique was developed to reduce the extreme distress that some traumatic memories can bring. It can be used as a standalone treatment, in combination with EMDR or other therapies. It is an effective evidence-based technique that can be used with dissociation, trauma, and highly distressing memories.

What is Flash Technique?

The Flash Technique was originally developed by Philip Manfield in 2016 as an addition to the preparation phase of EMDR for those whose memories were too distressing to stay within their Window of Tolerance for the EMDR standard protocol. It has made it possible to process memories that would otherwise be intolerable or overwhelming to a client. This includes people who tend to dissociate, become easily overwhelmed, or refuse to work on their memories.

As more clinicians have begun to use it, it was discovered that it could stand alone as a treatment modality to process disturbing memories for which there is reliving or reexperiencing. Reliving or reexperiencing indicates that you are experiencing the memory or aspects of the memory as if it were happening in the present moment. This does not confine it to trauma memories but also includes memories that are not associated with PTSD.

Trauma Processing That’s Less Distressing

The beautiful thing about Flash Technique is that it is minimally intrusive in that it does not require the client to engage with the traumatic memory consciously. It allows you to process traumatic memories without feeling distressed. It often does it in as little as ten to fifteen minutes. Like EMDR, Flash utilizes bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements, tapping, and/or tones, to help resolve unprocessed trauma.

How Does Flash Technique Work?

The Process

First, a client needs to identify a target memory. If they struggle with this, their therapist can help them find one or identify a pattern of connected elements. The pattern of connected elements is often used when there is a collection of memories that represent the same thing, such as a pattern someone experienced in emotional neglect, developmental trauma, or narcissistic abuse. It is for something that has happened repeatedly, and no specific memory can be identified.

Second, the therapist and client work together to identify a Positive Engaging Focus (PEF). The PEF is something the client focuses on that is strong enough to distract them from the target memory but is not associated with it. In individual therapy, the therapist often engages with the client about the PEF by asking questions. In contrast, in group therapy, the clients usually focus on their own PEF, and the therapist is not involved in the distraction. Some examples of PEFs include:

• Positive and engaging memories
• Pets, past or current
• Children or family members
• Activities, such as sports, hiking, hobbies, etc.
• Favourite sports teams, athletes, actors, musicians, etc.
• Favourite moments from movies or sports
• A favourite piece of music (can be enhanced by playing it)

Third, while engaging in the PEF, the client is periodically asked to momentarily interrupt that focus, usually by blinking 3-5 times. To trigger the blinking, the therapist usually says “Flash,” “Blink,” or something else louder than the rest of the conversation.

What is Behind the Effectiveness of Flash Technique?

It is not known what exactly is responsible for the rapid results. Still, a few things have been hypothesized to be responsible.

Subliminal Processing

Subliminal or unreportable processing bypasses conscious defences and calms the amygdala. Unreportable or subliminal stimuli refer to very brief exposure to stimuli, so you are unaware of what you have seen.

Research into using unreportable brief exposure has shown long-lasting effects. You don’t experience fear from unreportable stimuli because fear is only experienced when the stimuli are shown long enough to be conscious. This also prevents the experience of trauma-related disturbance from interfering with the parts of the brain involved in trauma processing, which work hard during Very Brief Exposure (VBE) when you are not consciously aware of the exposure. This suggests that the parts of the brain that process trauma can become highly active during the Flash Technique when there is no disturbance. This is where Flash Technique is different from EMDR, which does not use very brief exposure.

Modified Memory Reconsolidation

Memory reconsolidation can occur for both explicit and implicit memories. It can also reconsolidate after retrieval multiple times. Memories can be modified and modulated in various ways. They can be weakened, disrupted, or enhanced and associated with parallel memory traces.

This is a similar theory to why EMDR works. When memories are retrieved, there is a short window during which they can be changed. Flash can modify the memory to be less intense and distressing than before.

Cultivation of a Present Observer Position, Rather than Reexperiencing

The Flash Technique is hypothesized to work by changing your position in the memory from a reexperiencing position, where you feel like you are in that memory again, to a present observer position, where you experience the memory as something that happened in the past and are now distanced from it.

Interrupting Processes in the Brain

It is thought that blinking is telling the brain that you are working on a trauma memory. Blinking interrupts some of the processes in the brain.

Is Flash Technique Effective?

The Flash Technique can help people of all ages, including children and adults. It can help a wide variety of presenting complaints, including anxiety, grief and loss, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mild and severe dissociation, depression and more. It was found effective for COVID-19-related stress in healthcare workers, trauma, dissociative identity disorder, dissociation, and depression.

How is Flash Technique Used?

The Flash Technique can be used as a standalone treatment or in combination with several other therapeutic modalities.

Standalone Treatment

Flash can be used alone, and research has shown it to be an effective treatment for various struggles and conditions. It has been found to be effective in reducing traumatic symptoms in both group and individual therapy, as well as both online and in-person settings.

Combined with EMDR

Flash was originally developed to work with EMDR and can still be used with it. Several research studies show the effectiveness of using them in combination.

Combined with Internal Family Systems or Other Parts Work

The Flash Technique can be very effective when combined with Internal Family Systems (IFS). IFS is good at uncovering the distress and pain held by different parts. At the same time, Flash is good at processing that distress and aiding in unburdening.

Combined With Other Modalities

Flash Technique can be used with other modalities, such as Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and other trauma modalities, to help increase receptiveness to reparative adult perspectives.

Conclusion

Flash Technique is a powerful technique for reducing the distress and disturbance of trauma memories and other symptoms that cause reliving or reexperiencing.