CASE REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1548387
MULTI-MODAL MOTION-ASSISTED MEMORY DESENSITIZATION AND RECONSOLIDATION FOR TRAUMATIC GRIEF
Provisionally accepted
- 1Stichting Centrum ’45, Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, Netherlands
- 2ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, Diemen, Netherlands
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Background: The loss of a loved one under traumatic circumstances puts bereaved individuals at risk of developing prolonged grief disorder (PGD), (symptoms of) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), also referred to as traumatic grief. Traumatic grief is often associated with high symptom levels and strong avoidance. Not all patients benefit from standard treatments. Multimodal Motion-assisted Memory Desensitization and Reconsolidation (3MDR) has shown to be effective in the treatment of treatment-resistant PTSD. The development of a 3MDR protocol specifically for Traumatic Grief protocol (3MDR-TG) enables grief-focused exposure in an immersive, personalized and activating context.Objective: To provide a proof-of-concept of 3MDR-TG for traumatically bereaved individuals with PGD and PTSD.Method: 3MDR-TG was applied to a bereaved mother after the traumatic loss of her daughter.Qualitative interviews with the patient and the therapists were conducted to determine feasibility and acceptability. Clinician-rated PTSD, PGD and MDD symptoms were assessed at baseline, after 3MDR-TG, and at 16-week follow-up (primary endpoint).Results: The patient and therapists experienced the treatment as feasible and acceptable and rated the credibility of the treatment as high. Although some symptoms temporarily increased following exposure sessions, the overall decrease in PTSD, PGD and depressive symptom severity from baseline to primary endpoint (16 weeks follow-up) corresponded with reliable changes for PGD (RCI = -2,74), PTSD (RCI = -3.05) and depression (RCI = -3.05).Conclusions: We observed a clinically relevant and reliable decrease in PTSD, PGD and depressive symptoms over the course of 3MDR-TG. Further studies of 3MDR-TG in patients with traumatic grief are warranted.
Keywords: traumatic, grief, 3MDR, Multi-Modal, Prolonged grief disorder
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hengst, Nijdam, Gasser and Smid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sophie Marie Catherine Hengst, Stichting Centrum ’45, Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, Netherlands
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