Understanding of and ability to work with traumatic memory is critical to the resolution of complex trauma. Yet despite landmark texts which address the non-verbal features of traumatic memory and the role of the body (i.e. that `the body remembers’) the nature of traumatic memory – and indeed the nature of memory per se – is widely mischaracterized and misunderstood. This session presents current research findings on the complex network of subsystems we call `memory’, the need to distinguish contrasting kinds and varieties of memory, and the significance of this research for effective therapy with clients who experience the impacts of complex trauma.