The Research
The Research
Behind The Work
Six neuroscience pillars. More than 25 peer-reviewed citations. The complete evidence base behind every Strong Shoulders session, from memory reconsolidation to polyvagal theory to sleep-based memory consolidation. For the men who want to verify before they invest.
Why This Page Exists
For Men Who Verify Before They Invest
Most coaching websites tell you their methodology is evidence-based without showing you the evidence. This page exists because the men I work with don't take that on faith. They want the citations, the journals, the studies. They want to read the research themselves before they hand over time and money.
What follows is the actual research base. Not a marketing summary. The peer-reviewed studies, the foundational texts, and the meta-analyses that inform every part of the Strong Shoulders methodology. Including the honest limits of what the research can and cannot claim.
For You
Read the citations yourself. Click through to the studies. Verify the evidence on your own terms before you commit. You are capable of evaluating the research without anyone else's permission. The page is structured so you can do exactly that.
For Me
Working with men who have done their homework is far more productive than working with men who took someone else's word for it. The session starts at a higher level when the foundation is already understood. This page does that filtering work.
01
PILLAR ONE
Memory Reconsolidation
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
When a memory is reactivated under specific conditions, the emotional charge attached to it can be updated at the neural level. Not suppressed. Not coped with. Updated.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
The work draws directly on this mechanism. Timeline therapy and the Tier 3 reconsolidation protocol both target the reconsolidation window deliberately. The session activates the original encoding, introduces a mismatch experience that contradicts the prediction, and uses the 4-6 hour window during which the memory is labile to update the emotional content.
KEY CITATIONS
02
PILLAR TWO
RTM (Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories)
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
A specific protocol applying memory reconsolidation to PTSD treatment, with multiple peer-reviewed RCTs in veteran populations showing significant reduction in trauma symptoms.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
The RTM protocol shaped the structure of the Tier 3 reconsolidation work. Visual-kinaesthetic dissociation, controlled re-exposure, the specific mismatch sequence. The protocol has been validated in veteran populations specifically, which is why all efficacy claims on this site reference the veteran population and note that individual results vary outside that group.
KEY CITATIONS
03
PILLAR THREE
Polyvagal Theory
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
Three nervous system states determine what therapeutic work is even possible. Ventral vagal (safe and connected), sympathetic (fight or flight), and dorsal vagal (shutdown). Subconscious processing requires the ventral vagal state.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
Every session begins with a nervous system state assessment. The Tier 1 work specifically builds the somatic capacity needed to access ventral vagal regulation reliably. Without that capacity, the deeper work (Tier 2 and 3) cannot land. This is also why traditional therapy often fails for men in chronic sympathetic activation: the system is in survival mode and no insight will reach the body.
KEY CITATIONS
04
PILLAR FOUR
Self-Distancing
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
Observing yourself from a third-person perspective, including using second-person 'you' instead of first-person 'I', activates regulatory brain networks rather than threat networks. The nervous system processes the experience differently when distanced.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
Timeline work uses self-distancing structurally. The client steps onto the timeline as an observer, watches the younger version of themselves, and engages with the memory from a distanced perspective. This is also the basis for why post-session sleep audio uses second-person 'you are safe' phrasing rather than first-person 'I am safe'. The 'I am' framing backfires for low self-worth populations because it activates the inner critic.
KEY CITATIONS
05
PILLAR FIVE
Cognitive Reappraisal
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
Reinterpreting the meaning of an emotional stimulus to change the emotional response. Produces measurable, reproducible changes in brain activity. Not just thinking positively. A specific neural reorganisation of the cognition-to-emotion pathway.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
Reappraisal is the bridge between insight and embodied change. Tier 2 work explicitly uses reappraisal as the mismatch step of memory reconsolidation: the client reinterprets the meaning of the original event in real time, while in the activated state, which produces the prediction error required to update the memory. The Buhle meta-analysis shows the specific neural signature: increased dorsolateral prefrontal activity, decreased amygdala activity. This is what's actually happening in the brain during the reframe.
KEY CITATIONS
06
PILLAR SIX
Sleep-Based Consolidation and TMR
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
Memory consolidation happens during sleep. Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) uses audio cues during sleep to reinforce specific memory updates made earlier. Recent peer-reviewed evidence supports this protocol for emotional memory work.
HOW STRONG SHOULDERS APPLIES IT
Post-session sleep audio reinforcement. After the in-session memory work, the client receives a short audio recording with the specific learnings they articulated, in their own words, in second-person form. They listen during the falling-asleep window for five consecutive nights. The Recher 2024 study tested almost exactly this protocol structure with imagery rescripting and found significant reduction in memory vividness and emotional distress over five nights compared to two.
KEY CITATIONS
THE SYNTHESIS
How the Six Pillars Work Together
The pillars are not separate techniques. They are layers of a single integrated process.
Polyvagal theory establishes the nervous system state required for any deeper work to land. Without ventral vagal regulation, the rest cannot reach the body. This is why every session begins with a state assessment.
Self-distancing is the structural move that gets the client into observer perspective. Timeline work, parts work, and the Tier 1 physical timeline all use this principle. It activates regulatory networks rather than threat networks, which is what makes the deeper work safe to do.
Cognitive reappraisal provides the mismatch experience required for memory reconsolidation to occur. The client reinterprets the meaning of the original event in real time while in the activated state. This produces the prediction error that destabilises the original emotional encoding.
Memory reconsolidation and the RTM protocol are the actual mechanism of change. The reconsolidation window opens, the mismatch experience updates the emotional content, and the new encoding closes the window. This is where the lasting change happens at the neural level.
Sleep-based consolidation and TMR extend the work into the consolidation window over the following five nights. The audio reinforcement uses the client's own articulated learnings, delivered in second-person form, during the brain state where memory integration naturally occurs.
Six pillars. One process. Each session is built on this stack, even when only one or two pillars are explicitly named in the conversation. That is the work.
THE HONEST LIMITS
What the Research Does Not Support
The research is real, but it does not support every claim the wellness industry makes. These are the limits that protect you from over-claiming and protect us from being lumped in with the over-claimers. Knowing what the evidence does not support is part of taking the evidence seriously.
HONEST LIMIT 01
Lab-grade effect sizes don't always translate to home practice
Many of the studies cited used controlled conditions including wearable EEG, sham-controlled groups, and laboratory environments. At-home practice without that precision produces a meaningful subset of the lab benefit, not the full effect size. We work with a meaningful subset, not the full effect.
HONEST LIMIT 02
RTM efficacy data is mostly from veteran populations
The strongest evidence for the Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories protocol comes from US and UK military veteran cohorts. Civilian populations show the protocol working but with less data. We tell every client this directly. Individual results vary.
HONEST LIMIT 03
Generic 'sleep learning' is not what we do
Hypnopaedia, the idea that you can learn complex new content while asleep (vocabulary, languages), is not supported by current research. What works is reinforcement of content already engaged with consciously. We are not implanting new beliefs while you sleep. We are reinforcing what you already articulated.
HONEST LIMIT 04
Coaching is not clinical treatment
The research cited supports the underlying mechanisms. Strong Shoulders is a coaching practice, not a clinical mental health service. The work is most effective as adjunct to clinical care for diagnosed conditions, not a replacement for it. Always seek professional clinical support if you are in crisis or carrying a serious diagnosis.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Before You Click Away
Why have you put all the science on its own page?
Two reasons. First, sceptical analytical men want one URL they can verify. Buried citations across multiple pages don't pass the smell test. Second, this page exists for the moment you want to discuss the work with someone in your life and they ask 'what's the evidence?' Send them the page. The conversation moves forward.
Are these studies actually applicable to coaching?
Most of the original research was conducted in clinical or laboratory settings. The mechanisms studied (memory reconsolidation, polyvagal regulation, self-distancing, sleep consolidation) are universal human neurobiology. They operate the same way in a coaching session as they do in a research environment, but with less measurement precision. The mechanisms are real. The coaching application is honest about what it can and cannot replicate from the lab conditions.
Why aren't all coaches using this?
Most coaching training programs do not include neuroscience. Most coaches working with trauma have not read the primary literature. The coaching industry tends to brand existing protocols rather than ground them in research. Strong Shoulders draws on six pillars of peer-reviewed work because the work is more effective when grounded in actual mechanisms rather than borrowed frameworks.
Has Terry done formal training in any of these?
Terry holds NLP timeline practitioner certification and works from more than 10 years of personal study and application of the research described on this page. Strong Shoulders is positioned as research-informed coaching, not clinical practice.
What about EMDR, IFS, somatic experiencing?
These all overlap with the pillars described above. EMDR shares mechanisms with RTM (bilateral stimulation, controlled re-exposure). IFS overlaps with self-distancing (parts work as observer perspective). Somatic experiencing overlaps with polyvagal regulation. The Strong Shoulders methodology integrates principles from these where they align with the underlying research. The pillar names on this page describe the underlying mechanisms rather than the modality brands.
Where can I read more without paying for journal access?
Several of the cited studies are open access (Astill Wright 2021, Hörmann 2024, Sturt 2023, Porges 2022 are all freely available). For paywalled studies, the abstracts are usually free and contain enough detail to verify the claims. Google Scholar will surface the abstracts. PubMed Central often has the full text. For the books cited (Ecker, Porges 2011), the foundational chapters can usually be read via library access or sample chapters online.
What happens if a client wants to discuss the research?
Many do. The strategy session can include a discussion of which pillar is most relevant to their situation, what the research actually shows, and how it would apply to their specific case. Most analytical men want to understand the mechanism before they engage with the practice. That conversation is welcome and is part of how the work is positioned.
Read the Research? Now Take the Assessment.
The science is real. The work is real. The next step is finding out whether what you're carrying is actually a fit for what this approach can address. The qualification assessment takes 8 to 10 minutes and gives you an honest read either way.
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