THE RICHARDS TRAUMA PROCESS (TRTP)
As a mediator, I have been concerned with the levels of underlying distress and trauma that many of my clients present with. This predates their dispute. Often it goes a long way back, back to childhood, school, or a major shock or disappointment earlier in their lives. It frequently has little or nothing to do with the current dispute.
Relief of such distress usually remains well beyond the remit of dispute resolution. I recommend and refer to counselling and therapy wherever possible.
A counselling colleague told me recently the remarkable results she was seeing in clients with whom she had started using The Richards Trauma Process (TRTP). It provides a very fast relief of symptoms over the course of a small number of sessions. Set out below is an excerpt from the TRTP website.
She encouraged me to undertake the training in the process.
Family Mediation Melbourne is now offering this new TRTP service. For a limited time we are offering the service at an introductory discount.
TRTP™ is an elegantly simple, yet comprehensive, step-by-step process which resolves extreme trauma and trauma-related issues – anxiety, depression, fears and phobias. It achieves results quickly, effectively and safely – generally in 3 sessions.
It is a truly eclectic therapy. It is a very structured, yet dynamic process. It includes components of Gestalt, Mindfulness, Ego-state Therapy, Choice Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Parts Therapy, Emotion-focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dream Rehearsal Therapy and others.
It is a dynamic, rich and sequenced series of steps, which, if separated would not be anywhere near as powerful. It is unique. It allows space for the individual client’s needs to be met.
TRTP™ makes use of deep imagination. Deep imagination is used in order to deal with trauma where it is stored – in the subconscious and in the body. (Levine, van der Kolk, Rothschild, Ogden).
TRTP™ is in alignment with the two requirements stated by van der Kolk, Levine and other trauma experts:
For trauma to be resolved –
the person must (somehow) be moved to an empowered position in regard to the trauma
the body must (somehow) know that the event / events are over
TRTP™ initially deals with the underlying, unconscious core beliefs which keep a person stuck in patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour. In dealing with this at the beginning of the process, self-sabotage is avoided during the following therapy.
TRTP™ then takes the emotional charge from the past, moving the client to a place of empowerment in relation to the trauma. Because deep imagination is used, the therapist can then speak directly to the body and to the unconscious. The client is shifted from fight/flight/freeze and moved to an empowered, self-regulated state. The sympathetic nervous system is calmed. The memory of the trauma is placed firmly in the past.
The client quickly moves from their state of fight, flight, freeze – ‘I’m not safe!’ To, ‘It’s over. I’m safe now…’ Calm returns, on all levels. Symptoms cease.
TRTP™ does not merely address the symptoms of trauma. It deals with the underlying cause of the problem, removing the emotional charge from the past and returning the person to a state of empowerment, returning the sympathetic nervous system to calm.
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