Two Different Ways the Brain Holds Experience
Memory is not just a mental filing cabinet of facts and events. The brain actually stores experience in multiple systems that work differently. Two of the most important are explicit memory and implicit memory.
Understanding the difference between them can help explain why some experiences are easy to talk about, while others show up more as feelings, reactions, or body sensations.
Explicit Memory: The Memories We Can Recall
Explicit memory refers to memories we can consciously access and describe. These are the memories we can put into words, such as:
- Remembering your first day at a new job
- Recalling what you ate for dinner last night
- Thinking about a specific conversation you had with a friend
Explicit memories are often tied to events, facts, and timelines. When someone asks you about your past, the stories you tell are usually drawn from this type of memory.
These memories develop more fully as the brain matures, which is why many people have fewer clear memories from very early childhood.
Implicit Memory: The Memories That Live in the Body
Implicit memory works differently. These memories are not always accessible through conscious recall. Instead, they influence how we feel, react, and behave.
Implicit memory can show up as:
- A sense of anxiety in certain situations without knowing why
- Feeling safe and calm around some people and guarded around others
- Automatic habits, emotional responses, or body sensations
These memories are often formed early in life, before we had the language or cognitive ability to describe our experiences.
Because of this, implicit memory often lives more in emotions, nervous system responses, and patterns of behaviour rather than in clear stories.
Why Both Types of Memory Matter in Therapy
In therapy, people often begin by talking about explicit memories — the events they remember and the stories they can tell about their lives.
However, many emotional patterns come from implicit memory. Someone might understand logically that they are safe, capable, or supported, yet still feel anxious, stuck, or reactive in certain situations.
Therapy can help bridge the gap between what we know cognitively and what our nervous system still feels.
Supporting Memory Integration at Sandham Psychological Services
At Sandham Psychological Services, therapy often includes working with both the stories people remember and the emotional and relational patterns that show up in everyday life.
Approaches such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can help people process experiences that may still be held in implicit memory. Through these approaches, individuals can revisit difficult experiences in a safe, supportive therapeutic environment, allowing the brain to reprocess and integrate those memories more fully.
Over time, this can reduce the intensity of emotional reactions and support new experiences of safety, connection, and self-understanding.
When Reactions Don’t Seem to Make Sense
Sometimes people are confused by their own reactions. They might think:
- “Why do I feel this way when nothing is actually wrong?”
- “Why do I react so strongly in situations that seem small?”
- “Why can’t I just think my way out of this?”
Often, the answer lies in the difference between explicit and implicit memory. Our thinking brain may understand something clearly, while our nervous system is responding based on older experiences that were never fully processed.
Recognizing this difference can bring a sense of compassion toward ourselves. These reactions are not signs of weakness — they are often the brain doing exactly what it learned to do to keep us safe.
Moving Toward Integration
Healing and growth often involve helping these two memory systems work together. As people gain new experiences of safety, connection, and understanding, the brain can begin to update old patterns.
Over time, experiences that once lived only in implicit memory can become easier to understand, process, and integrate into a broader story of one’s life.
This process is not about erasing the past. Instead, it is about allowing past experiences to become part of a narrative that supports greater awareness, resilience, and choice in the present.