Traumatic Incident Reduction Association

TIRA eNotes – Feb. 2020 (No. 20)

The Value of TIR and Related Techniques for Medical Procedures
(both before and after the procedures)

Medical treatments are meant to help us, not to hurt us.  Can they then be considered traumatic?  The answer to that question lies in the person-centered nature of Applied Metapsychology work, including Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR).  We do not address that which the client has no interest in addressing.  If a client feels any sort of experience, including medical ones, to be frightening and distressing and they are willing to address them, we follow the client’s lead and do the work that they are most interested in.  To do a thorough job of relieving anxiety and distress we need to take a look at the past, present and future. 

Earlier painful and distressing experiences, similar in some way, contribute to the weight and seriousness of current events.  For an earlier event to have weight as an earlier, similar incident to a current medical situation does not necessarily mean that the earlier incident was medical in nature.  The similarity that ties incidents together may be as subtle as a smell, or the sound of someone’s voice.

Applied Metapsychology, including Traumatic Incident Reduction, gives us the tools to address all of these: past present and future, in order to achieve an optimum result with a client:

  • Specific traumatic incidents
  • Sequences of incidents held together by some similar element (often not immediately visible, but that emerge as we work)
  • Dread of future events
  • Concerns about general topics such as: health, doctors, operations, hospitals, and so on

An ideal place to start, if time and client readiness permit, is to address the incident of receiving a serious diagnosis by using Basic (single incident) TIR.  As the majority of those who have received such a diagnosis can tell you, this can be a traumatic incident in itself.

Once the incident of receiving a serious diagnosis has been resolved to the client’s satisfaction, we can carry on with a case plan to address all the areas of emotional charge.  The order in which we take these up depends upon the interest of the client.

If a traumatic event such as a car accident has led to the medical situation, we will most probably want to address that with Basic TIR as one of the first actions.  This addresses the recent past.  We will certainly also make a list of all the unwanted feelings connected with the situation and the treatment thereof, and address those with Thematic TIR (a number of incidents held together by a common feeling of “theme”), addressing the past in depth.  This allows us to reach and resolve the roots of current distress.

General areas of emotional charge such as:  “my health”, “my body”, “doctors”, hospitals”, operations”, etc., can be effectively addressed using a technique called Unblocking, addressing present concerns.

For many patients, anticipation of dangerous or painful treatment can be the worst part of an experience.  Future TIR* addresses dreaded future events effectively.  If a diagnosis involves a loss of mobility or other significant change in life style, Future TIR can be used for these issues as well.

Future TIR can be used prior to childbirth as well, if the woman has heard scary stories of giving birth, or has had a previous difficult birth experience herself.  In short, all aspects of a medical situation can be addressed with benefit to clients.  Going into a procedure in a calm, relaxed frame of mind is both more pleasant and more workable, as we are not expending energy in “fight, flight or freeze” and can use that energy for healing.

Medical situations are just one example of how the range of Applied Metapsychology technique (including TIR) improve quality of life.

*Future TIR is taught in one of the two second level workshops:  TIR – Expanded Applications