Quick Index:
Editorial Note by the Series Editor, Professor Charles Figley,
Director, Florida State University Psychosocial Stress Research Program and Clinical Lab;
Editor, The International Electronic Journal Traumatology;
Director, Green Cross Projects
EDITORIAL NOTE BY
THE SERIES EDITOR
Telling one's story, reenacting significant conflicts, and composing
a dialogue with oneself lead to understanding about past events.
This working through of troubling, distressful memories is the
hallmark of effective psychotherapy. Creative literature is full
of stories about emotional journeys of remembering, recovering
new information, formulating new conclusions about the past, and,
in doing so, acquiring a sense of peace and fulfillment. Psychologists
have known for some time that bearing witness to the life experiences
of a client is helpful.
Carl Rogers in the early 1940s was one of the first psychologists
to challenge the theories of
psychoanalysis and other interpretive and categorizing treatments.
Rogers' non-directive therapy, through the
unconditional positive regard for the client, became a major contribution
to helping clients reach peace of mind. Rogerian counselors act
more like companions and facilitators in the client's journey
toward self-understanding and greater life satisfaction. Rogers
believes that all creatures strive to make the very best of their
existence. If they fail to do so, it is not for a lack of desire.
Rogerian therapists employ reflection.
Reflection is the mirroring of emotional communication: If the
client says, "I feel like dirt!", the Rogerian therapist
may reflect this back to the client by saying something like "Seems
like you feel that life's getting you down." In
doing so, the therapist is trying to
communicate to the client that she is listening and cares
enough to understand. Reflection must come from the heart - it
must be genuine, congruent. Too often, however,
in an effort to reflect what the client was saying, the Rogerian
therapist or facilitator has tended
to direct the client to the therapist's world-view.
It is difficult not to do so.
In conversations with both clients and friends, we interact. We
give and take. Even when we attempt to remain neutral, we are
not. In most instances, this is what is expected. Yet there
is a very special population - those who suffer as a result
of past experiences - which benefits
most from being given the space to speak
without evaluative interaction.
This is one of the major precepts of Traumatic Incident Reduction
(TIR). At no time
during a session do the protocols of TIR permit the therapist/facilitator
to interfere to with the clientís viewing of and report
on the trauma being addressed - as by offering any sort of comment,
leading question, interpretation, observation, suggestion or reflection.
The intensity of the helpers interest is conveyed by listening
alone, and by the simple acknowledgment that follows only upon
the clients having said everything he/she had to say.
The elegant simplicity of the TIR procedure itself is counterbalanced
to a significant degree by the tightly focused interest and restraint
that this approach demands of the therapist who would use it.
Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR)
is the latest in the CRC Press Innovations in Psychology Series.
The Series Editorial Board and I are quite pleased to offer this
book to the field of psychology and to other professions who work
with clients haunted by traumatic memories. We established the
Series to stimulate innovation in the psychological sciences.
Of special interest are the acute problems of traumatized clients.
In the first book in the series, Burnout
in Families: The Systemic Costs of Caring, family psychologists
shared their findings and clinical innovations to help families
struggling with secondary traumatic stress.
In the second book of the Series, Energy
Psychology: Explorations at the Interface of Energy, Cognition,
Behavior, and Health, offered a new branch of psychology.
It linked the current theories with the new paradigm of energy
systems and their effects on emotions and behaviors. This included,
but was not limited to the psychological effects of highly stressful
events.
TIR offers a new way of approaching an old
problem: how to resolve emotionally charged memories that surface
in dreams, flashbacks, and behaviors or life patterns that the
client finds debilitating. The old way involved analysis, reflection,
or some other clinical technique that required the therapist to
sort through what the client was saying and attempt to help the
client reach insight. As you will see in the coming pages, TIR
adopts the new paradigm of psychotherapy: it is brief, client-centered,
client-paced. Its clinical successes are clearly defined: traumatic
memories are cognitively reprocessed and the client is desensitized.
We urge readers to write the Editorial Board
of the Innovations in Psychology Book Series. You can reach us
through the publisher, CRC Press. We look forward to learning
about your experiences in using TIR, suggestions for improving
subsequent editions of this book, and ideas about books for the
Series.
Charles R. Figley, Ph.D.
Series Editor
Professor and Director
Florida State University Traumatology Institute
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
"TIR is unbelievably powerful. It not only eradicates the residual effects of specific
traumata, it simply obliterates debilitating baggage of all sorts. Generations of
clients-to-come will trace their restoration to wholeness to this profoundly important book
by French and Harris. For its two chapters on the subtle dynamics of therapist-client
communication alone, Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) should be required reading in
helping professional curricula of every description."
Robert H. Moore, PhD, CTS, BCETS
Domestic Violence Intervention Program
Clearwater, Florida
"This book offers a new way to help victims and survivors of trauma. It presents a format to
help them deal with the memories, thoughts, dreams, emotions, and avoidances that remain
afterward. As the authors profess, this manual serves as a practical introduction to the
Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) treatment paradigm in an accessible format. The practical
nature and focus of this valuable volume is reinforced by the authors delineation of the strict
protocol and by their inclusion of the Rules of Facilitation. A well-done example of the
authors' goal to 'Keep It Basic'."
Mary Beth Williams, Ph.D., LCSW, CTS
President, Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists,
Board Member, International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies.
"TIR is an essential addition to the therapeutic repertoire of anyone involved in helping relieve the
distress of trauma, and French and Harris are deserving of praise for the effective and convincing job
they have done of presenting it here.
Employing clear language and eloquent anecdotal descriptions of the tool in use, their work describes
an approach to healing which, while it may well prove humbling to many therapists, is enormously
empowering to the client/survivor.
Unlike some of the other recently developed Power Therapies , TIR is possessed of high face validity,
firmly grounded as it is in philosophic basics familiar to any therapist. At the same time, in terms of
application, efficacy, and outcome, it represents a radical departure from the past; in a great many instances, it can provide a dramatically potent alternative to traditional mainstream interventions - one whose results typically include major cognitive and behavioral shifts, are quickly
achieved, and are seemingly quite stable and permanent in nature.
I suspect that the effectiveness of TIR may ultimately be shown to be linked to brain physiology not
clearly understood at present. But whatever science may eventually determine to lie at the roots of
TIR's effectiveness, I believe that if you work with trauma and its aftereffects today, you have an
ethical obligation to familiarize yourself with what is truly a revolutionary breakthrough in traumatic
stress treatment."
Dr. Cynthia M. Stuhlmiller, RN, MS, DNSc.
Professor, University of Technology,
Sydney and South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service
Academic Department of Mental Health Nursing, Australia
How to order a copy of Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR)
