Trauma facilitation

Rhonel is a trained Trauma Facilitator through Applied Metapsychology International in the USA. She uses Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) to facilitate trauma healing.

Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is a deceptively simple but highly skilled technique which has proven to be effective in addressing and resolving most of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other unwanted aftereffects of trauma.

When a person has been badly traumatised, he/she goes through a psychological process of coming to terms with the experience. This process usually includes a stage which is marked by nightmares, flashbacks, startle responses and other unpleasant symptoms which typically last for a few months. Eventually these symptoms cease,and the incident becomes part of the life history of this person, who can then proceed with life in a normal way. Sometimes this integration process is not complete and the sufferer may experience unpleasant symptoms for the rest of his life – often with disastrous consequences. This condition is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The National Registry of Evidence Based Practices (NREPP), which is a service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the USA acknowledges TIR as one of the accepted effective techniques to address Trauma and PTSD in USA war veterans.

In order to address this situation, TIR was developed in the 1980’s by two American professionals; Gerald French, an educational psychologist, and Frank Gerbode, a psychiatrist. In the course of their work they counselled many ex-combatants of the various wars in which the United States has been involved. These veterans often suffered from severe emotional problems, and were not functioning adequately in society, even many years after their wartime experiences. 

By using TIR, Gerbode and French could help these individuals, within a relatively short time, to come to terms with their experiences and to re-enter society successfully.

TIR is based on classical psychological theory, but also uses the major insights gained by research in psycho-biology and psycho-neurology in the late nineteen-hundreds. Since then, TIR has been implemented in all 50 USA States, every province of Canada as well as in Argentina, Australia, Belgium. Bermuda, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Palestine, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad and the Ukraine. In South Africa, about a 1000 people have been trained in the use of this method.

What really distinguishes this way of helping people from other methods is that it is entirely person-centred, but highly directive. The client is referred to as a “viewer” and the counsellor/therapist as a “facilitator”.

** TIRA (Traumatic Incident Reduction Association) is the international governing body of TIR.