Information about the book Traumatic Incident Reduction

Index

• From the publisher, CRC Press
• About the authors
• Authors' statement about the book
• Reviews of the book
• Foreword to the book Traumatic Incident Reduction
• How to order a copy of Traumatic Incident Reduction

From the publisher, CRC Press

French and Harris describe a clear, person-centered view of the way out of the aftermath of trauma into relief, insight, resolution, and personal growth. Based on concepts long familiar to the profession, TIR and its unique protocols represent nonetheless an entirely new and dramatically effective approach from which to view and address trauma-related conditions as well as many other less obviously trauma-related symptoms and conditions, including adjustment disorders, acute stress, traumatic bereavement, anxiety and somatization disorders, sexual abuse, and phobias. Aimed very much at the needs of the practitioner, the book includes an excellent overview of TIR, as well as a full explanation of the TIR procedure itself and a number of detailed and fascinating session transcriptions. The authors also devote considerable and important space to precise explication of the particular protocols and careful management of communication necessary during sessions in order to render TIR and related procedures fully effective. Finally, there are chapters devoted to contraindications and to a tool the authors call, after Gerbode, "Unblocking" - a powerful and extremely useful adjunct to the TIR procedure.

About the authors

Gerald French received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University. Together with Frank A. Gerbode, M.D. he founded the Institute for Research in Metapsychology (IRM), later renamed the Traumatic Incident Reduction Association (TIRA). He gave the first-ever TIR workshop and has taught TIR to more students than anyone else in the world. He continues to give regularly. He is currently pursuing a second master's degree in counseling psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California.

Chrys Harris received his B.S. in psychology from Wofford College and his master's from Wake Forest University. After working as a school psychologist, he joined the Veterans Administration, counseling Vietnam veterans and their families about combat-related traumas. He studied PTSD with Charles Figley at Purdue University, where he received his Ph.D., and did post-doctoral therapy training at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He utilizes TIR in his private practice as a marriage and family therapist.

Authors' Statement about Traumatic Incident Reduction, by Gerald French and Dr. Chrys Harris, Ph.D.

We have written this book for therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, and other helpers. Our hope is that the work will serve as a practical introduction to a particularly rational and powerful treatment paradigm, one that shows promise of being extremely effective across quite a broad perspective of client-presenting situations. The approach in question - Traumatic Incident Reduction, or TIR - is particularly notable for endowing the therapist using it with the ability to support clients in coming to terms with and growing beyond post-traumatic effects that seem unresponsive to other traditional therapies. TIR as a therapeutic tool lends itself perhaps most readily to the resolution of the residual emotional effects of known traumatic experiences: rape, combat, CSA, natural disasters and the like. For this reason, we have chosen to dwell largely on its use with survivors of such incidents. Despite this fact, however, we urge readers not to overlook the "Thematic" TIR's potential in addressing and resolving a great many other client problems as well.

We have attempted with this book to provide a more detailed and accessible reference manual than has been available for use until now for those working with TIR. Our hope is that the manual - for such is really what we hope it represents - will serve as both an introduction and as a practical reference to TIR.

The first description of TIR was contained in Frank Gerbode's book, Beyond Psychology: an Introduction to Metapsychology, published in 1988. Although we have drawn more than a little on that excellent study, our focus in this work has largely been a practical one. We encourage readers who wish to acquire a detailed understanding of the background and theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of TIR and related metapsychology-based procedures to consult that earlier volume.

We have withheld nothing we are aware of in the way of essential data concerning the TIR procedure and its competent administration, and an intelligent and caring reader might well encounter a significant - even remarkable - level of success in the use of TIR working only from this book. No book, however, can ever substitute for training with an experienced instructor. Responsible use of any non-trivial technique demands it, and should you decide to incorporate the approach into your repertoire, we urge that you seek out and attend a professional workshop. The present authors offer them, as do a number of other instructors certified by the Traumatic Incident Reduction Association (TIRA).

Reviews of the book Traumatic Incident Reduction

"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 authorsº 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'."

"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."

How to order a copy of Traumatic Incident Reduction