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Trauma

Trauma is treatable,
and it doesn’t take years to do it.

Dr. Louis Tinnin on Trauma

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“Trauma is the biggest mental health problem of the 21st century and it is the most treatable.”  
-Dr. Louis Tinnin, Psychiatrist and Co-Founder of ITR 

During everyday events, our whole brain processes and stores our experiences. However, during life-threatening situations, our logical brain becomes overwhelmed, and executive function shuts down, causing traumatic stress.

The Instinctual Trauma Response is the brain and body's hard-wired survival response to trauma.

The brain and body store fragmented memories of traumatic experiences in the senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. These triggers can cause stress, fear, and anxiety and other troubling symptoms until the experience is reconsolidated, time-stamped, and stored in long-term memory as "over.

 

Drs. Tinnin and Gantt explain the components of ITR in this classic video below:

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The ITR Approach

"Resolve the trauma first and see what is left!"

Many people say that participating in the ITR program radically changed their lives, and ITR Specialists often say it’s the only trauma approach they have seen that really works.

See Testimonials Here

ITR is a noninvasive, evidence-supported approach informed by art therapy, narrative therapy, parts psychology and neuroscience. It quickly, simply, and effectively resolves trauma symptoms. ITR focuses on treating the roots of trauma rather than the symptoms. Developed by Dr. Lou Tinnin and Dr. Linda Gantt, ITR uses Graphic Narrative® and Externalized Dialogue® to recode traumatic memories from the non-verbal/emotional brain to the verbal/logical brain, allowing memory reconsolidation without reliving the experience. This greatly reduces or eliminates future symptoms and triggers.

Graphic Narrative®

Graphic Narrative® is an approach that reconsolidates traumatic memories by giving the fragmented memory order, verbal coding, and historical context. It involves quickly drawing the trauma experience in stages with a beginning, middle, and end, from a third-person perspective. The story is narrated in the third-person past tense. This process makes the person feel the event is over once and for all.

Externalized Dialogue®

Externalized Dialogue® strengthens the True Self and relieves hurt, stuck or left behind Parts. The compassionate True Self dialogues with these Parts and leads them with strategies to rebuild neural pathways to healthier reaction patterns, and habits. It brings to light and addresses Parts negative thoughts behaviors, or beliefs (Victim Mythology). The person learns to strengthen their True Self and help their Parts to move forward into the future as a supportive team. Externalized Dialogue is a daily tool for decision-making and empowerment, promoting inner peace.

ITR Components

Instinctual Trauma Response describes the body’s and brain’s reaction to stressful or overwhelming experiences. ITR is predictable and understandable and the components are biologically hardwired in us for our survival. There are seven components of the Instinctual Trauma Response that are likely to happen in all traumas regardless of type. These provide the scaffold on which trauma stories are constructed

Startle, Thwarted Fight/Flight, Freeze, Altered State of Consciousness, Automatic Obedience (Compliance), and Self-Repair.

Each ITR aspect has body sensations that go along with it. The consequences of trauma can be bewildering and can change how we view ourselves, others, and the world at large.

Many people get “stuck” in one of the aspects for an extended period of time. This is known as a ‘fixed state.”

The ITR® Difference

ITR®

Other Approaches

Takes fragments of the traumas that cause flashbacks & nightmares and puts them into historical context with a beginning, middle, and end, so they can be stored in long-term memory and are no longer triggers.

Focus on coping skills (progressive relaxation, deep breathing, thought-stopping).

Images are drawn from an observer perspective to create Graphic Narrative® (doing play therapy with children) using the structure of the Instinctual Trauma Response to organize the event. Words are added to present the story to the whole brain for memory re-consolidation. —“The image comes first”

Uses cognitive skills and reframing.

If a traumatic event is not thoroughly resolved, it feels like the event will happen again. ITR makes it possible to truly “finish the story!”

Concentrates on how the person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected in the present.

As the traumas are truly finished, the person will have more capacity for problem-solving and can use Externalized Dialgue® to work with Parts and end dissociation.

What happened in the past is not considered as important as present-day functioning.

Single traumas can be completed in a matter of hours; a program can be done as an intensive (20-30 hours per week), several long weekends, or 2-3 hours weekly sessions. Weekly :50 minutes sessions are also successful. It just takes longer.

Some therapists insist on a long period of stabilization before trauma processing begins; which can be years of weekly sessions.

Can be used with children as young as 3 years old as well as older children, adolescents, and adults.

Young children and those with developmental delays cannot be treated with some types of trauma work.

Does not have an individual re-live the event. The client is a 3rd person observer and the story is put in past tense.

Some approaches stress abreaction (re-experiencing the emotion dissociated from the original trauma) and others use prolonged exposure.

Integrates nonverbal and verbal memories.

Deals primarily with verbal material.

The ITR® Difference

ITR® - Takes fragments of the traumas that cause flashbacks & nightmares and puts them into historical context with a beginning, middle, and end, so they can be stored in long-term memory and are no longer triggers.

Other Approaches - Focus on coping skills (progressive relaxation, deep breathing, thought-stopping).

ITR® - Images are drawn from an observer perspective to create Graphic Narrative® (doing play therapy with children) using the structure of the Instinctual Trauma Response to organize the event. Words are added to present the story to the whole brain for memory re-consolidation. —“The image comes first”

Other Approaches - Uses cognitive skills and reframing.

ITR® - If a traumatic event is not thoroughly resolved, it feels like the event will happen again. ITR makes it possible to truly “finish the story!”

Other Approaches - Concentrates on how the person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected in the present.

ITR® - As the traumas are truly finished, the person will have more capacity for problem-solving and can use Externalized Dialgue® to work with Parts and end dissociation.

Other Approaches - What happened in the past is not considered as important as present-day functioning.

ITR® - Single traumas can be completed in a matter of hours; a program can be done as an intensive (20-30 hours per week), several long weekends, or 2-3 hours weekly sessions. Weekly :50 minutes sessions are also successful. It just takes longer.

Other Approaches - Some therapists insist on a long period of stabilization before trauma processing begins; which can be years of weekly sessions.

ITR® - Can be used with children as young as 3 years old as well as older children, adolescents, and adults.

Other Approaches - Young children and those with developmental delays cannot be treated with some types of trauma work.

ITR® - Does not have an individual re-live the event. The client is a 3rd person observer and the story is put in past tense.

Other Approaches - Some approaches stress abreaction (re-experiencing the emotion dissociated from the original trauma) and others use prolonged exposure.

ITR® - Integrates nonverbal and verbal memories.

Other Approaches - Deals primarily with verbal material.

Help For Trauma

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