A New Approach to Healing Traumatic Memories: Using Logosynthesis to Resolve Subjective Units of Distress Associated with Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine how Logosynthesis® influences (1) Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS) and (2) the occurrence of intrusive, distressful memories in women who have directly experienced physical intimate partner violence. Participants (n = 4) were recruited via social media and randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group and engaged in 3 group sessions with the researcher. Three time points were analyzed for SUDS measures: Session 1 pre-intervention, Session 2 post-intervention, and 30-day follow-up preintervention. Two time points were analyzed for the occurrence of intrusive, distressful memories using the PCL-5: Baseline during participation qualification and 30-day follow-up. An independent samples T-test was conducted to compare the SUDS during treatment and 30 days after treatment. An independent samples T-test was also conducted to compare the occurrence of intrusive, distressful memories via the PCL-5 between Baseline and 30 days post-treatment. Analysis revealed the treatment group means reflected significant improvement over the control group, indicating Logosynthesis may be effective at reducing SUDS with sustained gains and reducing the occurrence of intrusive symptoms.