Imagery-based therapy may help people respond differently to painful childhood memories and reduce the fear of failure they carry into adulthood.
Why do some people treat every mistake as a personal catastrophe while others brush failures aside and move on? Psychologists suggest the answer may often lie in childhood experiences, where criticism, neglect, or harsh reactions from caregivers can leave lasting emotional scars.
New research from SWPS University and the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology indicates that specialized imagery-based therapy techniques may help weaken these old patterns, reducing fear of failure and changing how people respond to painful memories years later. The findings were published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Difficult childhood experiences, including criticism, neglect, or harsh reactions from caregivers, can affect mental well-being and quality of life later in adulthood. Caregivers’ responses to a child’s mistakes may help shape emotional and thinking patterns that persist over time. One possible outcome is fear of failure, rooted in the belief that mistakes make a person seem less worthy.
A team from the Poznań-based Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, and the Laboratory of Brain Imaging at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw studied whether imagery-based psychotherapy could reduce the effect of these negative memories on everyday life in a lasting way.
Does working with memories offer the possibility of lasting change?
The randomized, controlled clinical trial included 180 young adults (between 18 and 35 years of age) who experienced fear of failure. During a two-week period, participants took part in four therapy sessions focused on painful childhood memories involving criticism.
One group received the Imagery Exposure (IE) technique, in which participants were asked to recall situations that brought up fear or anxiety (the active control group). A second group received Imagery Rescripting (ImRs), a method designed to change the story attached to a memory.
In this approach, a person recalls a distressing event and then imagines a “defender” (e.g., a therapist) entering the scene to challenge the critic and support the child. A third group used the same technique with a 10-minute delay procedure (ImRs-DSR), intended to interfere with the memory trace of the critical memory and strengthen the intervention’s effect.
Participants filled out questionnaires and took part in interviews. The scientists also measured their physiological responses. Follow-up observations took place three and six months later.
Rescripting memories really works
All of the imagery-based techniques tested in the study produced a significant and lasting decrease in fear of failure. Participants also reported less sadness and guilt. Their physiological reactions to memories of criticism declined as well, suggesting they no longer responded with intense stress when thinking back to distressing situations. The improvements remained stable at both the three-month and six-month follow-ups.
Study coauthor Julia Bączek, a psychologist from the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, said the results show that emotions and arousal tied to childhood criticism can be reduced. Carefully chosen techniques can change the way these memories are experienced, making them less painful and disruptive.
Imagery rescripting worked best when participants experienced surprise. This effect came from prediction error, which occurs when there is a mismatch between what someone expects and what actually happens. That mismatch can help replace older, painful patterns.
Study coauthor Stanisław Karkosz, a cognitive scientist from the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, said the work showed that a key element of imagery-based therapy is creating a gap between the patient’s expectations and what takes place in the revised memory. That moment of surprise can open the door to lasting therapeutic change.
Past experiences do not have to rule us
The researchers show that imagery-based techniques can help people “write” safer new endings to old stories, changing how they respond to present-day challenges.
The findings suggest that difficult memories (including those related to failure) do not have to be experienced in the same fixed way forever. Past experiences are not necessarily emotionally processed in an unchanging form, Julia Bączek emphasizes.
Reference: “Imagine yourself as a little girl…—efficacy and psychophysiology of imagery techniques targeting adverse autobiographical childhood experiences- multi-arm randomised controlled trial” by Julia Bączek, Stanisław Karkosz, Magdalena Pietruch, Robert Szymański and Jarosław M. Michałowski, 24 November 2025, Frontiers in Psychology.
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1710963
Financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (Narodowe Centrum Nauki), grant number 2018/30/E/HS6/00703.
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