Dissolution of Autonomic Charge as a Mechanism for Emotional Memory Reconsolidation: A Contrasting Case Illustration of the Somatic Attachment Protocol (SAP).

Abstract:

This paper presents two contrasting clinical case illustrations examining the proposed mechanisms of the Somatic Attachment Protocol (SAP), an integrative, process-based framework for attachment trauma and chronic autonomic dysregulation. Grounded in polyvagal theory, attachment theory, and contemporary models of emotional memory reconsolidation, SAP proposes that dissolution of autonomic charge, the reduction of residual physiological activation linked to unresolved emotional memory, is the essential condition for reconsolidation to occur. Two adult clients with attachment-based dysregulation, hypervigilance, and insomnia received 17 sessions of SAP. Client A showed a breakthrough trajectory, with clinically significant and sustained reductions in distress across standardised measures concentrated in Sessions 15 to 17. Client B showed modest, plateauing reduction across the full course without comparable somatic-symbolic integration. This differential trajectory is examined through SAP’s conceptual hierarchy, in which charge dissolution enables reconsolidation and somatic charge regulation functions as a transferable, learnable skill that extends beyond the therapeutic encounter. Implications for clinical training, therapist attunement, and pacing in somatic work with attachment-dysregulated populations are discussed. Limitations of the two-case design are acknowledged, and the illustrations are positioned as theory-building and hypothesis-generating rather than efficacy-demonstrating. Directions for controlled, process-outcome research on SAP are proposed.