For over ten years the program developer had been teaching and, for many years prior to that, practicing an evidence-based cognitive, narrative approach to trauma recovery called Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR). The method has an eclectic collection of theoretical underpinnings, fairly diverse in nature. TIR has been recognized as an effective PTSD intervention for professional clinical use. However, since it is considered “integrative learning” and not “therapy” per se, training is available without educational prerequisites.
An estimated 70% of those who attend TIR training globally are mental health professionals, and the rest mostly literate and some semi-literate lay helpers. In addition to the research, there is a large body of anecdotal evidence of TIR's efficacy. Many clinicians who do the training either adopt it as their approach of choice or add it to their repertoire of effective work.
The population that most interested the developer of the Peer-Community Program, however, was those with little or no formal "higher education", who have learned this approach and achieved excellent outcomes in their sessions together. Trauma resolution can and has been taught successfully and applied effectively by these people.
The significant value of lay practitioners, paraprofessionals, peer-to-peer programs, and the contribution of those with "lived experience in common" makes it clear that we have resource options.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
In the early 1990s the CDC and Kaiser Permanente in San Diego did a study that pointed the way to change. This study makes clear that by far the majority of what ails us finds its roots in past overwhelming adversity, what is now understood to be toxic stress. In other words, when seeking to change the conditions of individuals and communities, the path forward must include the view through the trauma lens.
Learn more about the ACE Study and join the movement!
“The science is clear, early adversity dramatically affects health across a lifetime. The single most important thing we need today is the courage to look this problem in the face and say this is real and this is all of us.”
“When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.”
Listening and Being Heard
As far back as Freud, the need to address what he called the "chain of pathogenic memories" to bring about recovery from past experiences was recognized. However, the need to be heard, to tell our stories, is certainly not a discovery of the modern world. This is not new to modern indigenous people. Australian Aboriginals call it Dadirri.
Our PeerCommunity Program uses an age-old approach. Listening for healing is as ancient as the human race. As we are listened to we hear ourselves. Events are processed, integrated, and finally placed in the timeline of our life, in the past, where they belong, leaving the gifts of wisdom and empathy, and the energy, space, and awareness to live life more fully in the here and now. With our trauma resolved, we are much more likely to be able to “honor the present moment”.
“To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.
Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.”