Trauma
Trauma
Trauma is not only what happened. In the TRTP model, trauma is the ongoing response that remains when distressing events have not been fully resolved by the body and unconscious mind.
TRTP works from the view that unresolved trauma can continue through body memory, unconscious belief and nervous-system activation. The person may know the event is over, while the body continues to respond as if it is still happening.
We are often not consciously aware that we’re still responding to past events. We just experience the physical and emotional responses of our system being continuously triggered in the Fight Flight Freeze high stress response – in the hyperaroused Fight Flight response of anxiety, or the shut down survival Freeze response of depression.
When we hear the word ‘trauma’, many people immediately think of war, torture, refugees, emergency services and, perhaps, natural disasters.
However, there are many other forms of trauma. There are big ‘T’ traumas and small ‘t’ traumas. There are catastrophic and more everyday traumas.
We achieve the best understanding when we take away the word ‘trauma’ altogether. When we replace it with ‘distressing events’ we get the broader view – the school teacher who humiliated us in front of the class, the critical parent, the bullying sibling, harassment at work, the medical diagnosis…
In a system that’s out of balance, these unresolved distressing events can build up within us over time. They are accumulative. They can build up like the pressure in a balloon – that distressing event when I was 4 years old, that one when I was 9, when I was 12, 17, 26, 34…
There is only so much stress that can be put on a system before it cracks, before the balloon blows out.
The TRTP model views anxiety, depression, PTSD etc. as symptoms of a system, out of balance, that is under too much pressure.
What sits behind these issues, is dreadfulness that has happened in the past that has not been stored properly in memory. These unresolved events are instead stored in our unconscious and in our body. They continue to play out within us. Our body continues to behave as if those events are still happening.
We’re often not consciously aware of this. It can all go on outside of our conscious engagement.
TRTP, The Richards Trauma Process, is a therapy that was created in order to resolve trauma-related issues.
TRTP is designed to resolve the emotional charge of trauma where the client continues to carry it: in body response, unconscious belief and the survival state. The process does not require repeated retelling of the trauma story.
Frequestly Asked Questions
TRTP differs because it does not treat symptom management as the endpoint. It works with unconscious core beliefs, the emotional charge of past events and the body’s ongoing fight/flight/freeze response. The aim is trauma resolution, not better coping alone.
TRTP is practice-led and its formal evidence base is developing. We can point to practitioner outcome data, case observations and an ANZCTR-registered feasibility study, but we should not overstate this as conclusive proof. The accurate public position is: promising practice-based outcomes, early formal research, and more controlled research needed.
TRTP is designed for trauma-driven presentations, including anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, fears, phobias and other trauma-related patterns. Suitability depends on the client’s presentation, risk, practitioner scope and whether additional medical, psychiatric or specialist support is required.
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