Memory Reconsolidation and Its Clinical Application in Psychotherapy: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: Psychotherapy is widely used to reduce emotional distress, yet relapse and incomplete long-term change remain common challenges. Many therapeutic approaches improve symptoms without fully changing the emotional learning that maintains maladaptive responses. In this context, memory reconsolidation has been proposed as a neurobiological process that may help explain how lasting emotional change can occur in psychotherapy. Methods: This narrative review summarizes theoretical and empirical work on memory reconsolidation in clinical contexts. Sources were selected to integrate findings from neuroscience with applications in psychotherapy. The review focuses on how emotional memories become open to change, the conditions required for this process to occur, and how these processes have been applied across different therapeutic approaches, supported by existing evidence. Results: The literature reviewed in this article suggests that memory reconsolidation is a natural biological process in which reactivated memories can change when new, mismatching experiences occur. Across different forms of psychotherapy, effective clinical procedures tend to follow a shared sequence that includes experiential memory retrieval, prediction error, and updating emotional learning. Findings from experimental studies, clinical protocols, and case-based reports suggest that interventions engaging this process may support more lasting therapeutic outcomes and reduce relapse when the required conditions are met. Conclusions: Memory reconsolidation is a basic mechanism that can be used across different forms of psychotherapy. Although promising, its clinical use depends on several limiting factors, including timing, emotional regulation, and contextual conditions. Greater attention to these factors may help refine psychotherapeutic approaches and support more lasting emotional change.