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The Rules of Facilitation
The information in this article is taken from the Traumatic Incident
Reduction workshop manual, written by Gerald D. French, M.A., C.T.S. and
Frank A. Gerbode, M.D., C.T.S., and from the writings of Robert H. Moore,
Ph.D., C.T.S. The Rules of Facilitation are a key factor in giving a
successful session.
The Rules of Facilitation
Much of your skill as a facilitator[1] has nothing to do with your knowledge
of the theory or technique of Traumatic Incident
Reduction. Your greatest skill lies in creating a suitable and safe
environment in which viewing with its various techniques can take place,
and in expertly managing communication in the session. Once the proper
environment exists and communication is occurring, the process of
viewing[2] proceeds in a very simple
manner.
A special environment is needed because viewing involves intense
concentration on material that is often elusive or difficult to
confront. If your viewer's[3] awareness is dispersed in several different
directions, s/he will be overwhelmed and unable to do anything well.
The first requisite to viewing, then, is a calm and safe environment in
which to work.
French and Harris have noted that the sense of safety in a session or
elsewhere admits of degrees. We can feel generally safe, but still have
our "radar" turned on to a certain degree. Even at a party, where we
are having fun, we probably still spend a certain amount of energy
trying to be polite or interesting, and paying attention to how others
will respond to what we do or say. In a TIR session, what we are aiming
for is complete safety, for the viewer's radar to be entirely turned
off. This is why we spend so much time teaching the Rules of
Facilitation and the elements of communication: these are essential to
achieving a "no radar" condition.
In order to achieve a no radar environment, you must strictly follow
certain policies. Although some of them may seem obvious or simplistic,
particularly to trained therapists, their importance cannot be
over-stressed. Every one of them is vital to successful facilitation.
Years of experience have taught us that the vast majority of all
failures in facilitation (and in personal enhancement techniques of all
kinds) can be traced directly to violations, often seemingly trivial, of
one or more of these rules. Therefore the following is a strict code
that you must abide by in order to be successful as a facilitator:
Do not interpret for the viewer. Do not tell the viewer what s/he
is viewing or what it means. In this respect, your approach differs
radically from that of therapists who offer interpretations. Rather
than your viewer regarding you as an authority, you must regard him/her
as an authority, the authority, on his/her own experience. This does
not mean that you should take orders from him/her or give him/her the
responsibility for managing the session, but the session must be
conducted in a person-centered context. Accept and clearly
acknowledge the viewer's data without interpreting it for him/her or
commenting on it in any way. The viewer makes his/her own
interpretations. Assume that all statements made by a viewer are
prefixed by "It is my opinion (or observation) that..." In making that
assumption, you will find that you need not agree with the content of
what is said; you simply agree to accept the communication as a
communication from the viewer about his/her world as s/he sees it.
Do not evaluate for the viewer. Never attack, punish, or invalidate
the viewer or his/her concepts, perceptions, or actions, and don't
praise or validate them either. By "evaluate" is meant to suggest in
any way that the viewer is wrong or right, good or bad, as a person, or
in something s/he has said or done. This may require some skill on your
part, since even a minor comment, question, gesture, or change of facial
expression can be interpreted by the person you are working with as a
sign of your approval or disapproval. Obviously, if the viewer feels
threatened or made to feel wrong, his/her attention will be distracted
to you and s/he will no longer feel safe in the viewing session. Even
if you praise him/her, the viewer may take this as an indication that
you are judging his/her performance and that your next judgment might
not be so favorable. If you praise or express agreement with the viewer
even occasionally, the viewer will feel invalidated at those times when
you do not. Some schools of therapy encourage the therapist to express
his/her feelings about what the client is saying or doing, or to give
"feedback" to the client about what s/he is doing right or wrong. This
involves the client in trying to please the therapist or facilitator or
avoid disapproval. Approval and disapproval might be appropriate in a
context where one is trying to control behavior, but where the goal is
to increase self-reliance, perception, ability, and awareness, it is
completely counter-productive. Your viewer should be viewing, not
trying to cause an effect on you. And you should be facilitating, not
trying to create an effect on the viewer. It is the viewer who is
having an effect on his/her own mental environment.
Do not reveal or use anything the viewer says to you in a session
for any purpose except to enhance the process of viewing. If you want
to use material from a session as an illustration to train or educate
others, you must first obtain the consent of the viewer, and take
suitable steps to protect his/her privacy.
Control the session and take complete responsibility for it without
dominating or overwhelming the viewer. This makes it unnecessary for
the viewer to worry about managing the session and allows him/her to put
all available attention on viewing. If s/he is concerned about what the
agenda should be for the session, his/her attention will be distracted
from what it needs to be on: the material being viewed. Conceptually,
you, the facilitator, are like a personal secretary or office manager
who handles and screens all phone calls, keeps the files, and reminds
the executive of his/her appointments so that the executive (in this
case, the viewer) can smoothly do the job. Like a secretary, you may
keep records of the session, keep the agenda straight, and remind the
viewer when s/he needs to take the next action, but it is the viewer who
takes the action.
Make sure that you comprehend what the viewer is saying. A viewer
knows right away when s/he is not being comprehended. When that
happens, s/he feels alone and unsupported. If you do not comprehend,
you must seek clarification by admitting your lack of comprehension as
something having to do with you, and not with the viewer. So you would
say, "I'm sorry, I didn't get what you said. Could you repeat that?"
You would not say, "You are being unclear," "That sounds confusing," or
even, "Please clarify what you mean." In other words, you must take
responsibility for not having comprehended the viewer. Never blame the
viewer. At the same time, you must not interrupt or stop the viewer
from reporting, explaining, or making him/herself understood. Such
interruptions can be quite distressing or distracting.
Be interested in the viewer and what s/he is saying, instead of
being interesting to him/her. If you become interesting to your viewer,
you will act as a distraction, pulling his/her attention to you instead
of allowing him/her to place it on the material s/he is viewing. Your
interest in what the viewer is doing and saying will reinforce his/her
willingness to view and report on the material being viewed. Any viewer
generally knows immediately whether or not you are really interested.
You must have a firm and primary intention to help the viewer. If
you have such an intention, your viewer will be interested in what is
going on, per (6), above. On the other hand, if you are mainly
interested in, for instance, improving your skill or in making money,
even if you also have the intention to help the viewer, the viewer will
pick up the fact that his/her well-being is of only secondary importance
or interest to you, and the session will not go well. This does not
mean that you cannot also have other intentions, but they must be
secondary to a genuine, primary intention to help the viewer.
Make sure that the viewer is in optimum physical condition for the
viewing session. Be sure that the viewer has had enough sleep, and that
s/he is not hungry or under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive
drugs (except when drugs are medically prescribed as an absolute
necessity), and that s/he is not physically tired. If the viewer is in
urgent need of immediate help, this rule can be relaxed. It is better
to help in an emergency under less-than-optimal conditions than not to
help at all. Nevertheless, drugs, tiredness, and hunger tend to lower a
person's awareness, and a lowered awareness is counter-productive in a
viewing session. Sometimes a person must delay viewing (except for
minor emergency remedies) for periods of anything from a day to several
weeks or even months, until the effects of exhaustion, drugs, or
medication have fully worn off. The precise amount of time one must
wait is a matter of judgment but in most cases seems to be around 24
hours for alcohol and longer for drugs with longer-lasting or more
potent effects. The exact amount of time depends on the dosage and on
the way in which an individual viewer is affected by a particular drug.
To make sure the viewer is not tired or hungry, you may have to get
him/her to take a nap or eat something before starting a session.
Make sure that the session is being given in a suitable space and at
a suitable time. The viewing environment should ideally be safe,
private, quiet, a comfortable temperature, and comfortably lighted,
although in less formal circumstances this may not be possible. The
space need not be exquisite or magnificent, but it should be pleasant,
not messy, smelly, or distracting. The viewer should have a comfortable
chair (as should you). The door should, of course, be closed,
preferably with a very noticeable sign on it, if necessary, stating that
a session is in progress and no one is to disturb it. Any distracting
external noise must be dealt with before starting the session.
Also, make sure that the time is safe. You must make sure that the
viewer is not pressed for time and that suitable precautions have been
taken against any need to interrupt the session for any reason. Thus
you ensure that you have any necessary materials such as paper and pens
ready to hand, so you will not have to interrupt the session to get
anything. Even in a relatively informal session, it is a good idea to
have a written session agenda handy before you begin so that you do not
lose track of what you intended to do with the viewer in that session.
Neither the viewer nor you should have conflicting appointments or be
under time pressure that could cut the session short before it reaches a
suitable end point[4] or cause worry about time that would be distracting.
Whatever its merits may be as a point of convenience in scheduling
sessions and billing for third-party payments, the conventional 50
minute hour is completely unworkable in doing TIR or any other viewing
technique. Taking every session to an end point gives a client a series
of successes and a strong sense of confidence in the technique.
Act in a predictable way so as not to surprise the viewer. If you
engage in unpredictable actions, the viewer can become distracted by
wondering what is going to happen next. Part of being predictable is
that you never let anything other than a real emergency cause you to
cancel a session appointment once made. Rarely, you may find that you
have to delay a later session because the current one is running longer
than anticipated. This is OK, so long as the viewer who is having to
wait for you knows that if s/he were the one who needed a longer than
usual session, the viewer after him or her would have to wait, too.
Never try to work with someone against that person's will or in the
presence of any protest. Sometimes a relative or friend can persuade a
person to do viewing even when s/he does not really want to, or other
pressures can be brought to bear on a person to undertake viewing
against his/her wishes. Under such circumstances, viewing does not work
well or at all. A major purpose of viewing is to reduce the stress in a
person's life. Being forced or coerced to do viewing increases stress.
What applies to the whole process of viewing also applies to each step
of the process. Once a session has started, you must not force or rush
the viewer. Allow him/her to take as much time as s/he wants to answer
a question or execute a viewing direction. If s/he feels that you are
demanding a quick response, s/he will not take the time to do the major
beneficial action in viewing, the action of viewing itself. Also,
always consult the viewer's interest; do not try to force him/her to do
a particular technique when s/he is really not interested in doing so.
Never do anything in a session that is not directly conducive to the
viewing process. Any facilitator who, during a viewing session, engages
in social chit-chat, talks about him/herself, makes random comments,
gives lectures, advice, or validation, laughs excessively or
inappropriately, or indulges in emotional reactions toward the viewer
(such as anger or expressions of anxiety) will distract the viewer and
destroy the safe space that must exist in order for TIR to be
successful. It has not proven workable for facilitators to be "honest
about their own feelings" during a session. The viewer has enough to do
when engaged in the viewing process without also having to cope with
extraneous actions or displays of emotion on the part of the
facilitator.
Carry each viewing action to a success for the viewer. Never leave
the viewer at a point of failure, incompleteness, or unresolvedness.
Again, for this reason, viewing sessions must not be fixed in length.
Both the viewer and you must have somewhat flexible schedules. Take
responsibility for ending the session when you decide that the viewer
has reached an appropriate end point. When the viewer encounters
emotional charge[5] in the material s/he is viewing, the viewing process
can become momentarily embarrassing, difficult, or painful for him/her
and s/he may feel like leaving the session, and may tell you so. Should
this ever occur, your job as the facilitator is to encourage him/her to
stick with it, to confront and handle the difficulty to a good point of
resolution. It is important to show the viewer that you have the
courage, patience, and confidence to confront the difficult material
that s/he presents to you. In this way, you model the qualities the
viewer needs to confront his/her traumas. Your viewer will come out of
whatever emotional pit s/he may fall into in the course of doing TIR if
you simply and calmly continue the process that put him/her there in the
first place. After you have given a few sessions, your experience will
provide all the confidence you need.
Although some of these Rules may seem obvious or simplistic-particularly
to trained therapists-their importance cannot be over-stressed.
TIR Specifics
Although certain discrete elements of the Traumatic Incident
Reduction (TIR) procedure, can be found in other methods, the procedure,
when taken as a whole, is unique in distinctive ways:
TIR is highly directive, yet not interpretive.
TIR is based on the creation of a safe space by a sharp division of
labor between facilitator and viewer, stringent rules prohibiting
evaluation or invalidation, and a powerful and precise communi-cation
technique.
TIR sessions have no fixed length; you stop the procedure when the
viewer reaches an appropriate end point.
TIR handles emotional charge[5] resulting not only from what has been
done to the client, but also from what he has done to others, observed
others doing to others, and what he has done to himself.
TIR uses repetition as a powerful tool to reduce charge after the
source of the charge has been located.
TIR is systematic, cut-and-dried, and requires a minimum of special
ability on the part of the facilitator other than:
The ability to manage and control communication.
Willingness to observe strictly the Rules of Facilitation.
An honest desire to help.
TIR can easily be learned and used by professionals and lay
practitioners alike to help others, with minimal supervision.
Glossary
1. Facilitator: A person who helps another to perform the actions of
viewing.
2. Viewing: A systematic, one-on-one method for exploring and
changing one's own mind. An activity in which a person systematically
examines his world in such a way as to gain insight and ability by undoing
repression.
3. Viewer: The one doing the viewing.
4. End Point: The optimum time to end a viewing procedure, or
session.
5. Charge: Negative energy or force accumulated and stored within the
mind, resulting from conflicts and unpleasant experiences a person has had,
and the repressed unfulfilled intentions contained in these experiences.
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