What does “bottom up processing” mean?

A lot of effective therapy is considered “top down.” As in we talk, using our brain, cognitive work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a tried and true and effective method for therapy. I happen to use “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT ( pronounced like the work “act”) to do this cognitive work.

But we know from research (in fact the more research that is done, the more it confirms this fact) that trauma memories are stored quite differently than regular memories.

Trauma memories when re-experienced can feel here and now, and unending. Often times, they are experienced as “emotional flashbacks.” That is a feeling that has no words or explanation of what it’s attached to. These types of flashbacks (while all flashbacks are distressing) are especially distressing because they don’t have an image or words attached to them. 

So “bottom up” processing means looking at emotions and how things are playing out in the body to come up with cognitions or thoughts and understandings about what is happening.

We tap into the body and pre-verbal processing to make sense of what’s happening.