Books: Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), by Gerald French

"This is a valuable book, and not to be missed. The approach that it describes is simple, elegant, solid, and makes sense; you can see both how and why it works."

Belen Carballo
Clinical Psychologist
Buenos Aires, Argentina

"... simple, elegant, solid, and makes sense ..."

"Generations of clients-to-come will trace their restoration to wholeness to this profoundly important book by French and Harris." "Not just another technique for management or assimilation of intrusive symptoms, TIR simply pulls PTSD and most anxiety and panic disorders out by their roots. Literally. And French and Harris' book on the subject is a long-awaited jewel. The authors present the elements of TIR's spare but meticulous protocol clearly and concisely, adding just enough of its developer, Frank Gerbode, elegant philosophical foundation to overcome the reader's suspicion that nothing this apparently simple could be so incredibly powerful.

But powerful it is... TIR not only eradicates the residual effects of specific traumata, it obliterates debilitating baggage of all sorts. And surprisingly, it does so without therapist interpretation or rearrangement of the client's subjective reality. Indeed, even minutes away from one of TIR's typically astonishing procedural endpoints, such therapist input actually would derail the session. Reason enough to see the video and get the training before jumping in.

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

"Wonderful... French & Harris' book provides a wealth of information not only on handling clients suffering from known traumata and their sequellae, but also on ways and means of effectively addressing feelings, emotions, sensations, attitudes, beliefs and pains that have their roots in frequently forgotten incidents from the past."

Alex D Frater, MAHA, CTS
Vice President, Australian Hypnotherapy Assoc.
Campbelltown NSW, AUSTRALIA

"Wonderful ...

a wealth of information ..."

"As you will see in the French/Harris book, TIR ... is brief, client-centered, client-paced [and] its clinical successes are clearly defined ..." "There is a very special population - those who suffer as a result of past experiences - which benefits most from being given the space to speak without evaluative interaction... TIR offers a new way of approaching an old problem: how to resolve emotionally charged memories that surface in dreams, flashbacks, and behaviors or life patterns that the client finds debilitating.

The old way involved analysis, reflection, or some other clinical technique that required the therapist to sort through what the client was saying and attempt to help the client reach insight. In contrast, at no time during a session do the protocols of TIR permit the therapist/facilitator to interfere to with the client's viewing of and report on the trauma being addressed - as by offering any sort of comment, leading question, interpretation, observation, suggestion or reflection.

As you will see in the French/Harris book, TIR adopts the new paradigm of psychotherapy: it is brief, client-centered, client-paced. Its clinical successes are clearly defined: traumatic memories are cognitively reprocessed and the client is desensitized. "

Professor Charles R. Figley
Founding President, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
Director, International Traumatology Institute
University of South Florida, Tallahassee, Florida

. "TIR emphasizes empowerment of the client; it is an important contribution to the field of trauma therapy, and I have been enriched by this book."
Shabtai Noy, PhD
Senior Clinical and School Psychologist
Jerusalem, Israel

"... an important contribution ..."

"... a simple but amazingly potent method of exposure for memories of trauma ...

... The profundity of insights that people spontaneously voice, and the speed and completeness with which longstanding issues can be resolved, can be breathtaking." "As a reviewer of Gerald D. French and Chrys J. Harris' book I must at the outset confess the prejudice that exposure - which permits extinction of conditioned emotional responses - is the most important underlying mechanism in any effective psychotherapy.

TIR is a simple but amazingly potent method of exposure for memories of trauma. The client is asked to silently play through the traumatic incident, and then tell what happened. The therapist acts purely as a facilitator of the process. S/he listens with interest and concern but does not seek to question, let alone interpret, what is said. These two components - silent review and asking what happened - are repeatedly cycled through until the memory is desensitised.

Although in this reviewer's experience the method does not work for all, it does work for most. The profundity of insights that people spontaneously voice, and the speed and completeness with which longstanding issues can be resolved, can be breathtaking. I suspect TIR's power derives from its repeated conscientious confronting of a painful memory in an appropriately supportive environment. Most other psychotherapies only too readily permit cognitive escape from traumatic stimuli.

But so far I've said nothing about the book. If you're already involved in treating trauma then you know that therapy is rarely straightforward. And often enough you find yourself struggling, needing every skill at your disposal. The basic parameters of TIR's method appear simple in the extreme. If you're interested in trying TIR then at the very least I'd counsel you to read this book. And if you don't read it then I fear you're in for much painful reinventing of the wheel! A moving foreword and various anecdotal accounts give a feel for the TIR process and the place it has played in the lives of clients and its practitioners. The book tells you how to do it, but more than that, it presents a distillation of the wisdom and skills of many years of therapeutic experience."

Michael S. Armstrong. MD, FRC Psych
President, Institute of Australasian Psychiatrists
Sydney, Australia

"TIR just makes so much sense. Rooted both in psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural theories, TIR's basis is a sound one. TIR is grounded (based) on the belief that every person has within him or herself the ultimate answer to their suffering. Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) will capture your attention.

French & Harris have written as 'real people', with flesh and bones. Their book has become a consulting manual for me, in which I frequently find answers to the questions posed by clinical practice. It has had an important impact on the outcomes of the treatments I provide."

Eduardo Cazabat
Clinical Psychologist
Director, Centro de Estudios del Trauma Psicologico y el Stress
Buenos Aires, Argentina

"TIR just makes so much sense ... Their book has become a consulting manual for me ..."

"Thank you
for improving my skills..."
[Note to the authors]: "I now own Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR). It is like 'going home' to read it. Thank you for improving my skills, and the lives of the people we see in our program."

Carol Chapin, MA
Grief Services Program
Albuquerque, New Mexico

"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 brief 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 involve major cognitive and behavioral shifts, are quickly achieved, and 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 after-effects today, you have an ethical obligation to familiarize yourself with what is truly a revolutionary breakthrough in traumatic stress treatment."

Dr. Cynthia M. Stuhlmiller RN, MS, DNSc
Sydney and South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service
Academic Department of Mental Health Nursing
Kogarah, Australia

"... an essential addition to the therapeutic repertoire of anyone involved in helping relieve the distress of trauma ..."

"... offers a new way to help victims and survivors of trauma." "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. The practical nature and focus of this valuable introduction and manual to the Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) treatment paradigm is reinforced by the authors delineation of the strict protocol and by their inclusion of their 'Rules of Facilitation'."

Mary Beth Williams, PhD, LCSW, CTS
Past President, Director, Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists (ATSS)
Board Member, International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center
Warrenton, Virginia