Trauma Debriefing

There are a variety of ways to work with trauma. Sometimes the emphasis will be on supporting people to know that the traumatic event is over now, and they are safe — in these situations Helen might recommend parts work (see How Helen Works). In other situations, debriefing trauma can be a powerful relief of something that is replaying over and over in us.

Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is designed to give you a safe container and to give you control. The reviewing of the incident is started from the place of safety before the incident and finishes at the place of safety after the incident. You view the incident as many times as you need to; sessions are designed to keep going until the incident is processed, in order to avoid the need to stop part way through, which means that sessions may be scheduled for up to 2½ hours long.

A typical pattern might be a one hour first session to explain the method, then start mapping trauma events; one 2½ hour session to debrief the trauma; then a one hour follow-up session. Trauma debriefing is useful for events you have been through or witnessed.