A brief clinical handout by Dr. Jennifer L. Sweeton presenting two complementary techniques for working with negative memories. Part I, “Focusing Away,” teaches concentrating on contextual, non‑emotional details of a moderately negative memory for ~5–15 minutes to reduce emotional activation. Part II, “Focusing Near,” guides gradual, titrated engagement with emotional hotspots in the written memory using SUD (subjective units of distress) ratings and agreed arousal‑reduction strategies until distress decreases (recommended repeat until SUDs drop ~50% or are manageable). The document highlights safety for trauma clients and cites Denkova et al. (2014) as a supporting study.
Questions this document answers
Jennifer L. Sweeton (Copyright © 2016)
Denkova, E., Dolcos, S., & Dolcos, F. (2014). Neural correlates of ‘distracting’ from emotion during autobiographical recollection. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Approximately 5–15 minutes.
50% (repeat Part II until SUDs have decreased by 50% or are manageable).