Lifespan Integration
Core Mechanism
Repeated chronological review of life memories allows the nervous system to integrate traumatic experience into the larger temporal context of a whole life, shifting implicit body-level beliefs about safety and self
Ontology
Fragmented temporal integration — the self is stuck in past time, experiencing old threat as present. The body has not updated its felt sense of when it is.
Therapeutic Voice
"We're going to go through your timeline again. Just let the images come — you don't need to narrate or analyze them. Your body knows how to do this."
View of the Person
A temporally extended self whose coherence depends on neural integration across the lifespan — when integration breaks down, the self fragments into ego states stuck in past time
Evidence
Not yet listed in major guidelines
Limited; 2 pilot studies, growing case series literature
None yet
Growing rapidly in the Pacific Northwest and internationally. Training requires prior clinical license. Pace developed the approach after observing spontaneous memory timelines during EMDR sessions. Three main protocols: Standard (general integration), Birth-to-Present (attachment repair), and FLOOR (for preverbal/early trauma). The repetition of the timeline — sometimes 8-15 times in a session — is the distinctive mechanism.
Conditions
Epistemology
Blind Spots
Limited controlled research base; mechanism of action not well understood neuroscientifically; can be over-applied to presentations that need more stabilization first; rapid pace of timeline repetitions may overwhelm some dissociative clients
Contraindications
Active psychosis, unstable dissociative disorders without prior stabilization, clients unable to access early memories or establish a coherent timeline, severe cognitive impairment affecting sequential processing
Training
LI Level 1 (3 days), then Level 2, Level 3. Licensed MH professional required
Lifespan Integration LLC — LI Certified Therapist
Level 1: 21 hrs; Level 2: 21 hrs; cert: additional consultation
$500-700/level; $2K-4K total
Equity & Cultural Adaptations
Philosophical Roots
Siegel (interpersonal neurobiology — neural integration across time); van der Kolk (the body keeps the score — implicit memory); Schore (affect regulation and repair of early attachment); Bowlby (internal working models); Janet (dissociation as temporal fragmentation)
Related Modalities
Clinical Vignettes
See how Lifespan Integration formulates these cases:
Test Yourself
How does LI differ from EMDR in its approach to traumatic memory?
Show answer
EMDR targets specific traumatic memories for reprocessing via bilateral stimulation. LI uses a chronological timeline of memories (not just traumatic ones) repeated multiple times, allowing the nervous system to integrate the past as past. LI works more with the body's felt sense of time than with specific memory content.