Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR)

Compared to traditional therapy,  TIR is a rapid method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in the past. It involves re-experiencing past traumas in a completely safe environment, free of distractions, judgments, or interpretations.

When something happens that is physically or emotionally painful, one has the option of either confronting it fully and feeling the pain, or repressing it. If the incident is fully experienced it becomes a past incident. However, If the incident is blocked out it continues to exist as ongoing unfinished business. Such traumatic incidents may continue to exert negative effects. Such incidents are described as "repressed, unfulfilled intention".

This blocking activity is a self-protective impulse. It "works" to a certain extent, but it can cause us to have attention and awareness tied up in incidents from the past. This has a dulling effect on our ability to perceive, to respond intelligently in the present, and to enjoy our current environment. Unexamined, unresolved past events tie up our energy and intention. Traumatic Incident Reduction provides a safe space and the means to fully examine that which had been blocked. A past incident loses its ability to hurt us at the point where we have looked it through and through. In the process, we release our resistance and the painful emotion and negative thought patterns contained in that past trauma. At the point where the incident has been fully viewed, we feel our attention become un-stuck from it and often have some realization. This is called an end point.

Does TIR Work?

The idea that present difficulties may be caused by past traumatic incidents is not a new one, it is the guiding principal behind PTSD. TIR correctly applied can result in the complete and permanent elimination of PTSD symptomatology. By providing a means for completely confronting a painful incident, TIR can and does deliver relief from the negative effects, enabling the person to move on. The resolution of past traumatic incidents can bring about a greatly improved quality of life. Because of this, Traumatic Incident Reduction is often included in a Life Stress Reduction Program.

Basic TIR is used to address incidents we know have happened to us: a car accident, the painful end of a relationship, a medical procedure, the loss of a loved one, a combat-related incident, the loss of a job or a failure in business or in school, receiving a frightening diagnosis, etc. In Basic TIR, we work on a past traumatic incident until all of the force, pain, and resistance is gone, we reach an end point. Sometimes there will be an earlier incident that is hooked into the first one we started addressing by some similarity in content. Such earlier incidents may be something we haven't thought of in years. If an incident comes up, we address it in the same way until an end point is reached.

 

 

Unwanted Feelings

Sometimes we have unwanted feelings, emotions, sensations, attitudes, or pains without necessarily being aware of what incidents underlie them. Thematic TIR addresses these unwanted feelings, using the common "theme" or feeling to trace down through a number of incidents until the force and resistance is reduced from all of them and an end point occurs.

Both Basic and Thematic TIR are often employed during a Life Stress Reduction Program.

Give me a call or send me an email mike@mikecardinal.com to see if TIR might be a appropriate therapy for your your specific situation.