{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,30]],"date-time":"2025-07-30T16:25:12Z","timestamp":1753892712867,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,15]],"date-time":"2025-05-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747267200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010174","name":"University of Colorado","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010174","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>Nursing students are at risk for traumatic stress, but current treatments have limited benefits. Regenerating Images in Memory (RIM) is a verbal psychotherapeutic approach to help people safely re-experience troubling memories, then integrate them into meaningful life narratives. RIM\u2019s developers propose a mechanism of action based on nonconscious processes like emotional processing and body awareness. Two Minds Theory (TMT) is a health behavior model that suggests coping arises primarily from the speedy and non-conscious Intuitive Mind. This study was designed to test a potential mechanism of action for RIM based on TMT, where the Intuitive Mind suggests solutions that are later integrated into the Narrative Mind.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>In this exploratory, descriptive, mechanistic study with no comparison group, 30 nursing students received RIM during the late COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed validated symptom questionnaires before and after 1 RIM session lasting 1\u20132\u202fh. As an exploratory measure, we measured altered states of consciousness using a scale linked to rapid improvement in studies of psychedelic treatments. Sessions were audio-recorded and participants\u2019 brainwaves were monitored using a MUSE S (Gen 1) 5-lead EEG headband with MindMonitor software.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Students reported pre-post improvements (Cohen\u2019s <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f1.93\u20132.75) on 4 of 5 questionnaires. Participants reported levels of altered consciousness similar to those in psychedelic drug studies, particularly on an \u201cineffability\u201d subscale linked to symptom improvement. EEG readings showed a significant shift away from the frontal lobes (associated with the Narrative Mind) and into the temporal lobes (associated with the Intuitive Mind), <jats:italic>\u03c7<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup><\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f11.0\u202f\u00d7\u202f10<jats:sup>4<\/jats:sup>, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001, during the middle stage of RIM. This was followed by frontal and temporal lobe co-activation during the final stage of RIM, a finding that also mirrors psychedelic studies\u2019 finding of increased synchronization across brain areas during treatment.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Replicating prior pre-post RIM studies, nursing students reported symptom improvement. These changes co-occurred with altered consciousness and increased temporal-lobe brain activity, findings that are consistent with RIM\u2019s proposed mechanism of action based on TMT. Although this uncontrolled trial does not allow conclusions about treatment efficacy, RIM is a brief verbal psychotherapeutic intervention that merits further study.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1539079","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,16]],"date-time":"2025-05-16T09:51:12Z","timestamp":1747389072000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["How is a psychotherapeutic process like a psychedelic drug? 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