The Hidden Power of Traumatic Decisions

Several years ago Janet was in a car accident, which left her with pain in her neck and back. She continued to suffer from the pain, which just didn’t seem to heal. As a result, Janet became less active and gained weight, all of which negatively affected her life.

Lingering effects of traumatic incidents are common: the feelings of the traumatic incident (in this case, back and neck pains) are re-experienced in subsequent incidents which have some similarity to the original trauma. In Janet’s case, since sitting in her car was part of her original trauma, even just sitting in a chair was similar enough to the original trauma to trigger her back and neck pains.

At some point Janet learned about the Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) technique and began to have sessions with a TIR facilitator. Her neck and back aches then gradually lessened, and several weeks later she felt almost back to normal. 

TIR can reduce or even eliminate the effects of a traumatic incident.  Without the suppressed negative influence of past traumas, the body is more able to recover.

After the accident Janet stopped driving. The reason behind her reluctance to drive involves a different aspect of the effects of a trauma. During the intense moments of the trauma, Janet made a decision: “I shouldn’t drive again.” It is common to make a decision during a trauma, especially to try to ensure that a similar trauma will not occur again. Unfortunately, the pivotal decision remains hidden because it is suppressed by the painful and negative feelings of the trauma. Remembering the decision would trigger the pain which the person tends to avoid. Curiously, the person continues to carry out the decision, even though it is hidden from conscious awareness. And without viewing that decision, the person can’t change it.

During Janet’s TIR sessions, she was able to recognize her decision not to drive. When she viewed that decision, she felt a great release of the trauma’s charge and got rid of its hidden influence. After her TIR sessions, Janet was finally able to get back to driving. She was no longer a prisoner of her past (although hidden) decision.

In a different example, Pam was 10 years old when her mother died. Pam went to live with her aunt, but then 2 years later her aunt was killed in an accident. Pam was then taken in by her grandmother. During her intense feelings of loss, Pam made a decision to never get married. Her thinking was that she never wanted to have children because she didn’t want her children to experience what she had gone through. This case is an example of how decisions can have a much broader scope than might be expected. By viewing the trauma using the TIR process the actual decision becomes evident. Fortunately, her grandmother was concerned about Pam’s fear of being abandoned, and she sought out a TIR facilitator.

It can be surprising to people that they have hidden decisions from the past which still affect their lives.  In a non-evaluative manner, the TIR procedure guides a client to see those past decisions. The repeated success of TIR, with clients who have had all sorts of traumas, clearly demonstrates that this really does occur:  people do make decisions during a traumatic incident, those decisions remain hidden, and those hidden decisions continue (without TIR) to affect their lives.

 by Margaret and Harry Nelson

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