JISCMail - COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Archives

Re: the recent posting on our list advertising a "new one year counselling training and accreditation programme offered in London during 2007"

I can't speak for the list, but my impression is that there are enough of us on this list who are more concerned to invest our energies into stopping trauma causing events than investing our energies into mopping up the causalities of trauma causing events to suggest the posting of this training opportunity on this list is misplaced.

The idea of seeking to promote equanimity ("the ability to remain unperturbed by an event experienced within the framework of one's body and thoughts as a result of objective observation") is perturbing in itself - I am sure a shot of Ketamine would achieve the same ends. Indeed, the only discernable distinction I can see between TIR-LSR and the methods of the pharmaceutical industry is a replacement of a chemical cosh with a social one .

These de-sensitisation/distraction techniques/tricks have been with us for a while and some of us believe they seek to do little more than limit corporate and state liability (through quick-fix, insurance friendly cures) for the suffering of the victims of corporate and state sponsored violence, give the quackery of psychology and psychiatry a wafer-thin veneer of professionalism and mystify and professionalise the process of psychological support-giving by rendering it a skill requiring professional (and therefore costly) training in esoteric psychotherapeutic techniques .

The effectiveness of such treatment packages, at least in regards to being better than a placebo, remains unproven (assuming none of us take too seriously those risible research papers published in corporate sponsored psychotherapeutic academic journals). Moreover, these treatment packages developed from the need of war mongering administrations to patch up their battle-fatgiued soldiers so as to expediate the soldiers' return to and delay their departure from the battlefields. Of course, soldiers who engage in acts of state sponsored violence and social harm are not just the military, they also include workers who prop up vicious social institutions that profit from human misery (I include psychologists here, of course). In short, it puts the cure for trauma in the hands of proxy organisations working on behalf of those who created the trauma.

I am sure those involved in TIR-LSR training have a benign intent, but I fear that this might be as a result of their adopting a position of equanimity to the causes of trauma rather than to the cures.

Apologies for cross-posting. I thought some of you might be interested to know a whole one year programme we have just started offereing. It is an accreditation and training programme offered in London for TIR-LSR counselling.

The full programme consists of 138 hours training and requires 100hours supervised practice of the many varied methods of Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) and Life Stress Reduction (LSR) techniques: an integrative approach that applies detached, mindful observation, in the absence of judgment using a wide range of structured methods.

The earliest start date is 3rd February (very soon). The later start date is 23rd February.

The brochure can be downloaded from www.tir.org.uk/A5brochure.doc . The website can be visited at www.tir.org.uk which also describes the short introductory workshops.

Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) and related techniques description:

Many TIR/LSR tools consist of repetitive exercises, practised in the absence of judgment, that train the client to better focus his/her attention on mental pictures, thoughts or other ‘private events’. The continuous focus of attention, intensified through repetition and a suitable environment, can lead to the reduction and even ‘extinction’ of specific unwanted psychological phenomena. TIR counselling is a way to achieve this within a small number of sessions.

The broader subject of TIR-LSR (Life Stress Reduction) is a systematic approach for enabling detached, non-judgmental observation of almost any inner or outer world event, whether cognitive, emotive, physiological, behavioural or other. Tools are varied, client-titrated and applied in order to: 1) maintain congruence with the client’s own experience 2) to maximise client engagement moment to moment, and 3) to cater to the client’s mental resources at a given time. The approach also consists of useful strategies for accessing awareness the client was previously unable to access.

Most tools enable the client to achieve greater equanimity* with respect to his/her mental and physical environment.

* Equanimity is the ability to remain unperturbed by an event experienced within the framework of one's body and thoughts as a result of objective observation. This implies that unless one is aware of an actual (internal) experience, one cannot be equanimous towards it. This defined, equanimity relies on awareness on one's thoughts and body sensations (Cayoun, 2003)