Workshop helps teach techniques for resolving the results of trauma

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Eleven participants recently spent four days in a Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) workshop learning new skills that can help them make a difference in other peoples’ lives. The TIR workshop, offered through the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Collaborative, was held at Mayo Regional Hospital from Nov. 8-11 with the participants learning treatments to help resolve the impact of trauma.

Contributed photo

TRAUMATIC INCIDENT REDUCTION — Taking part in a Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) workshop Nov. 8-11 at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft were front, from left, April Sargent, Donna White and Terrie Zelkan. Back, Barbara Chase, Russell Scott, Donna Cogswell, Lynn Caldwell, Art Jette, Terri Kelly Palin, Kim Kagan and instructor Cynthia Scott, TIRT, LSRT. Taking the picture was Cheryl Morin, TIR trainer-in-training. The TIR workshop details how to create a safe space, be 100 percent person-centered and several communication exercises designed to teach one how to be present and really listen without being distracted and rules of facilitation. There is no therapy or counseling involved in TIR sessions and clients arrive at their own conclusions, usually with an insight that brings resolution to the topic they were addressing.

    TIR is used to resolve unwanted conditions related to past traumatic experiences, know and unknown. The techniques help resolve real-life issues which may be directly related to past traumas, in relationships, jobs, family and more. 
    “We can use what we have learned in personal lives, every day and immediately,” workshop instructor and certified Life Stress Reduction (LSR)/TIR trainer Cynthia Scott said on the first day. “All of what we are doing is called life stress reduction, and one of the techniques in that is TIR.”
    “You are not dealing with strictly classic trauma, you are dealing with what the person perceives as trauma,” Scot said, saying there often can be a misconception on what the TIR workshops cover with trauma being anything a person feels has adversely affected them.
    “It’s not necessarily trauma in the traditional sense, it’s anything in life people feel is not manageable,” Scott said.
    TIR can be appropriate to use for individuals with a specific trauma or set of traumas they feel is adversely affecting them — whether or not they have a formal diagnosis such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; those who react inappropriately or overact in certain situations which could be the result of past trauma; and people who have experienced unaccountable or inappropriate negative emotions either chronically or in response to certain experiential triggers. Workshop participants learned who TIR is and is not appropriate for.
    Scott said the near dozen workshop participants represent different aspects of the community, including health care, social service agencies and non-profits. Some of the participants said on the first day the TIR workshop will be beneficial for them going forward, such as teaching the skills needed to set up safe and comfortable sessions for helping others with TIR.
    “As soon as you leave here you can be a facilitator, you can be listed on the TIR website as a certified facilitator,” Scott said, as the website recommends the use of a certified facilitator.
    “The facilitator only facilitates,” Scott said, saying in some sessions the individual may take off their facilitator hat if their client were to brainstorm some ideas on a certain topic such considering opening a business.
    “The facilitator is almost in a role of a coach, we are just coaching on the sidelines and they are doing the work,” she said. “We are not giving advice, we are coaching and they are having success.
    “It’s an opportunity for them to help themselves to find an opportunity to release them from that incident and the impact it’s had on their life.”
    The workshop participants learned communication exercises over the four days to help others deal with TIR, learning also about creating a safe space for the client sessions. “They are comfortable because you are predictable,” Scott said.
    She said a series of questions — part of an unblocking technique that is highly useful in preparing a client for TIR and for handling issues that are not directly trauma-related — help in uncovering and navigating the issue. “The facilitator is just asking questions,” Scott said. “The facilitator doesn’t tell what to do,” instead providing an opportunity to deal with the original trauma and move on.
    Speaking on the role of a client she said, “What I find very powerful and empowering is I’m saying what the problem is in my own words, I get to elaborate myself. There’s no leading words, everything that comes up is my own words. The only words I’m going to hear are mine, that’s where the power comes in where as before I was feeling trapped and victimized.”
    During one role playing exercise Scott demonstrated a scenario in which the client talked about both a new refrigerator not fitting within their kitchen design and the death of their hamster. As the facilitator Scott asked questions and comments such as “go to the start of the incident and tell me when you’re there,” “what are you aware of?” and “tell me what happened.”
    “You will notice when people finish they come back to the present, they will summarize at the end,” Scott said. She explained TIR involves a bucket approach, with the bucket representing trauma being emptied of its contents through the sessions.
    “You don’t interrupt for any reason, you just hang in there,” she said, saying the facilitator is to remain focused and be present with the client.
    On the fourth and final day of the workshop those taking part spoke positively of their experiences. Some of the favored aspects include the fact the informative and fun sessions were held in the area and took place over four consecutive days instead of being more spread out. Attendees also liked being able to practice what they had learned, instead of just discussing the techniques and watching videos.
    The TIR workshop participants came to learn some new skills to help others. “There are people experiencing lots of critical incidents, just to be there for people to express what’s going on in their life can be huge,” was one response to a question asking to summarize the four-day experience.
    Another said anyone can become a TIR facilitator, the position does not require special skills before taking the workshop.
    TIR also varies from a medical model of coping with trauma. “This is the exactly the opposite in many respects,” said another workshop participant. “You don’t have to find what’s wrong with the person, you are coming at it more positively and you are finding better results.”
    For more information go to www.TIR.org or www.TIR-NREPP.org. Scott can be contacted at 717-4506 or Scott.CynthiaM@gmail.com or find the reFRESH Training Center on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/reFRESHtrainingcenter.