Trauma Counselling
Trauma counseling is vital because it provides a safe and supportive space for individuals to heal from the emotional wounds caused by traumatic experiences.
Trauma can have profound and lasting effects on a person's mental and emotional well-being, often leading to symptoms like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Counseling helps individuals process their trauma, understand its impact, and develop healthy coping mechanisms.
It empowers them to regain control over their lives, rebuild their sense of self, and foster resilience. Ultimately, trauma counseling offers hope and the opportunity for individuals to embark on a path toward recovery, enabling them to lead more fulfilling and productive lives.
The Origin of Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR)
TIR was developed in the 1980s by two American professionals, namely Frank A. Gerbode, M.D., a psychiatrist and Gerald French, an educational psychologist. Their focus was to find a simple, highly effective tool to address Trauma and PTSD in USA war veterans. In the course of their work, they counselled many ex-combatants who were fighting in the various wars the United States had been involved in. Many years after their wartime experiences, many of these veterans still suffered from severe emotional problems and found it hard to function adequately in society. By using TIR, Gerbode and French could help these individuals, within a relatively short time, to come to terms with their experiences and to re-enter society successfully.
The value of this approach was appreciated by other professionals with a result that a training programme was developed, and TIRA (Traumatic Incident Reduction Association) came into being. TIRA is the international governing body of TIR. TIR has been implemented in all 50 USA States, every province of Canada as well as in Argentina, Australia, Belgium. Bermuda, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad and Ukraine. In South Africa, more than a thousand facilitators have already been trained in the use of this method