TIR is a rapid (compared to traditional therapy) method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in the past. It involves re-experiencing past traumas in a completely safe environment, free of distractions, judgments, or interpretations.

When something happens that is physically or emotionally painful, one has the option of either experiencing it fully and feeling the pain, or trying in some way to block one’s awareness of it. In the first case, the action of experiencing (perceiving and understanding) what has occurred is allowed to go to completion and the incident becomes a past incident. However, in the second case, the action of experiencing that incident is blocked. That is, one represses the incident, and the incident (together with the intention not to experience it, and any other intentions and activities present in the incident), continues to exist as ongoing unfinished business. Such traumatic incidents may continue to exert negative effects. We say such incidents carry charge defined as “repressed, unfulfilled intention.”

This blocking activity is a self-protective impulse. It “works” to a certain extent, but it can cause us to have attention and awareness tied up in incidents from the past. This has a dulling effect on our ability to perceive, to respond intelligently in the present, and to enjoy our current environment. Unexamined, unresolved past events tie up our energy and intention. Traumatic Incident Reduction provides a safe space and the means to fully examine that which had been blocked. A past incident loses its ability to hurt us at the point where we have looked it through and through. In the process, we release our resistance as well as the painful emotion and negative thought patterns contained in that past trauma. At the point where the incident has been fully viewed, we feel our attention become un-stuck from it and often have some realization. This is called an end point.

The idea that present difficulties may be caused by past traumatic incidents is not a new one. It was with the recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a major difficulty for many returning Vietnam Vets, that it was given a higher profile. Once the phenomenon was clearly recognized, PTSD was easily identifiable among other populations, such as rape survivors and victims of natural disasters. People with PTSD can be severely incapacitated by ongoing, uncontrolled remembrance of their traumas. In effect, they are continually reliving these incidents. Although survivors of trauma who have PTSD and flashbacks offer perhaps the most dramatic example of living in the past, the phenomenon of having attention fixated on past incidents is quite common to people in general. In normal life, most people can be triggered into momentary or prolonged reliving of past traumas of varying degrees of severity, with attendant negative feelings and behavior. TIR is a technique designed to examine the cognitive, emotional, perceptual, or other content of past incidents, to reduce or eliminate the emotional charge contained in them, and thus to relieve a person of their negative consequences, whether or not a diagnosis of PTSD applies to the person.

In the great majority of cases, TIR correctly applied results in measurable improvement of PTSD symptomatology. It also provides valuable insights, which the viewer (or client) arrives at quite spontaneously, without any prompting from the facilitator (practitioner), and hence can “own” entirely as their own. By providing a means for completely confronting a painful incident, TIR can and does deliver relief from the negative effects, enabling the person to move on. The resolution of past traumatic incidents can bring about a greatly improved quality of life. Because of this, Traumatic Incident Reduction is often included in a Life Stress Reduction Program.

TIR was developed by Frank Gerbode in the 1980s. Its historical antecedents include the early breakthroughs of Sigmund Freud, the person centered work of Carl Rogers, conditioning models of Ivan Pavlov, and a number of other prominent figures in the field of psychology such as Joseph Wolpe, Thomas Szasz, and Joseph Breuer.

While resembling therapy or counseling in some ways, TIR is not considered to be therapy. It is presented as a form of education, tracing back the roots of the word "educate" which stem from definitions related to "drawing knowledge from within oneself."

In this modality, the practitioner is referred to as a facilitator and the client is referred to as a viewer, to mean a person who views the makeup of their inner world.

Some key components of this methodology include:

1. Viewing is a form of integrative learning to bring together two or more things (our story) to form, create, or unite with something else (new awareness).

2. This work requires 2 people working together: A viewer (client) and a facilitator (practitioner).

3. The client chooses what to focus on, “Client is the expert on their life”.

4. The facilitator chooses the technique that will be used. “Facilitator is the expert on the techniques”.

5. A clients is never pushed or contradicted.

6. A facilitator refrains from interpretation.

7. A facilitator remains calm, present, and appropriate in response to what the client says.

8. The process of viewing uncovers emotional "charge" which the client gradually releases.

9. A client arrives at their own conclusions.

10. Sessions are taken to end points, at which time the viewer feels some aspect of the issue that was being addressed has been released or transformed to a degree which the viewer feels better about it.

Freud based his work on the theory that in order to recover from past traumas, it is necessary to achieve a full anamnesis (recovery of lost memory). He never adequately explained why anamnesis was necessary; however. Dr. Gerbode proposed the following person-centered explanation:

A trauma, by definition, is an incident that is so painful, emotionally or physically, that one tends to flinch away from it, not to let oneself be aware of it, or in Freud’s terms, to repress it. It is the flinch and not the “objective” description of the incident that makes it a trauma. Hence, an event that is challenging and exciting for one individual may be traumatic for another. The one for whom it is a mere challenge is able to “stay with it” and master it; the one who experiences it as a trauma is not.

From a person-centered viewpoint, an intention is simply the most proximal, the most subjective part of an activity. If I intend to win a race, from that intention flows all the means I use to win it: the various movements of my muscles, leading to forward movement of my body, and ultimately to pulling ahead of the other racers, and so on. In other words, the intention is the beginning of the action, and the consequences flow outward to become manifest physically. An activity continues so long, and only so long, as the corresponding intention exists. That means that for each ongoing intention, there is an activity (at least a mental one) that continues as part of the here and now.

In fact, people subjectively define time in terms of the activity they are engaged in. Objectively, time is a featureless continuum. But subjectively, time is divided up into chunks, “periods” of time. For every given activity (and for every given intention) there is a corresponding period of time, and so long as you have an intention, you remain in the period of time defined by that intention (and activity). Holding onto an intention holds you in the period of time that commenced with the formulation of that intention. There are only two ways of ending an intention:

1. Fulfilling the intention, whereupon it ends spontaneously. You can't keep intending to win a race after you have won it.

2. Unmaking it. Even if you don’t fulfill an intention, you can decide not to have that intention anymore, and cause it to end. This, however, requires a conscious decision. You have to be aware of the intention and why you formed it.

But what if the intention is buried in the middle of a repressed trauma? In this case, neither condition 1. nor 2. above can be satisfied, and the intention persists indefinitely. The person remains in the period of time defined by that intention; that is, the person remains in the traumatic incident! The incident floats on as part of the present and is easily triggered, that is the person is easily reminded of it, consciously or unconsciously.

The only way a person can exit from that period of time (and from the intentions, feelings, and behaviors engendered by the trauma) is by confronting the incident, whereupon one can see:

1. What intentions were formulated at the time of the incident.

2. Why they were formulated at that time.

Then, and only then, can one satisfy condition 2, above for ending an intention, and can one let go of the intention. Without a thorough anamnesis, condition 2 cannot be satisfied.