Help For Trauma

Instinctual Trauma Response® (ITR®)

Trauma is an injury

and can be healed.

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Bessel van der Kolk urges the development of PTSD methods that "go to the darkest place of trauma while still staying present and safe." (2014, 2023). Instinctual Trauma Response (ITR) is such a method that can be integrated at all levels of interaction by clinicians, chaplains, first responder peers, family readiness group members, command teams, foster/adoptive parents, and trained nonprofit lay people to promote resilience, readiness and recovery.

ITR is an integrated trauma-effective intervention utilizing art, narration, and parts - informed work. The main components of ITR that have heuristics as evidenced-based practice are Graphic Narrative (GN), Externalized Dialogue (ExD). The GN provides scaffolding for drawings that "finish the story" and then are "re-presented" by the therapist or ITR certified individual. ExD provides communication with stuck/hurt or left-behind parts resulting from trauma. According to Tinnin & Gantt (2009), ITR moves traumatic experiences from where they are stuck in the limbic system (emotional/nonverbal brain) to the prefrontal cortex, (thinking logical verbal brain), resolving the symptoms. ITR's unique combination of art and narrative therapies with parts-informed treatment has proven efficacious in the alleviation and cessation of trauma symptoms. ITR can be conducted at a peer level to triage and prevent worsening of symptoms. Sustainment and treatment can be augmented by ITR Certified Specialists.

ITR is an easily trained and administered process that can be quickly adapted to promote resilience, healing, and readiness.
Peer Support or Clinical Training Available

👇 Demystify trauma with this one video! 👇

Click Here to Watch

The Instinctual Trauma Response® Benefits:

Gets to the root of the problem rather than focusing on coping skills
Uses standardized procedures
Minimizes disabling responses to future traumas
Instructs how to anticipate and ward off the instinctual responses in tough situations- managing triggers
Makes it possible to give words to traumatic events and bring closure to them without reliving them
Integrates the whole self into present-day awareness
Reduces or eliminates troubling symptoms caused by traumatic events
Achieves results in a relatively brief period
Provides effective ways to greatly reduce stress and deal with negative beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors
Empowers a person with new life skills to use on their own in the present and in the future.

Take a Quick Trauma Assessment

Find an ITR Certified® Professional

Take an ITR Course (Free or Paid)

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We say, "Resolve the trauma first,
and then see what's left.”

Trauma symptoms very often mimic mental health disorders.

Many suffer silently, feeling they're "crazy" because nothing they've tried has worked. Many therapists are not trained to treat trauma symptoms, but instead focus on coping with them.

Drs. Tinnin and Gantt say, "There is no reason why a person should even suffer from a minimal symptom of trauma. It's easy to treat and it doesn't take long to do it."

Instinctual Trauma Response® (ITR) recognizes trauma's potential consequences as being "stuck" in the ITR Components such as startle, fight/flight, freeze, altered state of consciousness, automatic obedience, or self-repair. Living with this toxic stress can be devastating, leaving many feeling hopeless and irreparably broken. Many treatment options can be confusing, slow, re-traumatizing, and yield minimal results.

ITR® addresses the root cause of trauma and resolves trauma symptoms allowing a person to break free from the chains of the past, to live in the present, and thrive in the future.

Everyone can be Trauma-Effective and Parts-Informed!

Watch the video "Demystifying Trauma" and Learn More!

ITR is Trusted by these Organizations:

Who We Are

• • •

Help For Trauma and the ITR Training Institute are proud to be a part of the Mental Health Emancipation Movement. We believe in accessibility to effective mental health for all. “Trauma is not a life sentence.” It can be resolved in a time-limited fashion.

About Us

Instinctual Trauma Response® Training

Be more than trauma-informed, be trauma-effective and parts-informed.

ITR® Certifications and CEs for mental health providers.
ITR® Training is available to anyone wanting to learn and help.

Learn More About ITR Courses

Testimonials

“The Instinctual Trauma Response model allows for the gentle and rapid processing of haunting traumatic memories in a matter of days, not months or years. Their sensitivity and compassion, along with their exceptionally astute understanding of trauma and the healing process, have produced a significant breakthrough in the field of trauma treatment. I applaud their work, and enthusiastically recommend ITR to all those who treat and support survivors of trauma."

- Glenn Schiraldi, Ph.D., LTC (USAR, Ret) Author of "The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook," "The Relience Workbook" and "The Adverse Childhood Experiences Recovery Workbook" and other books.

“Whether acute or sustained, the effects of trauma on the brain can lead not only to anguish for the client, but also to frustration for the clinician. These painful conditions, so often resistant to even the most sophisticated therapies, are now, thanks to the dedication of Drs. Tinnin and Gantt, able to be approached with a new and remarkably successful methodology. This is a model for responsible and effective care. I think it's the most amazing methodology to hit the trauma field, and it incorporates all of the current "hot" acronyms in a much more thoughtful and personalized way than any of them.”

- Judith A. Rubin, Ph.D., ATR-BC
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh

"I studied under Dr. Louis Tinnin, a towering figure in the field of trauma research and treatment who has been described (by Bessel van der kolk) as ‘the greatest trauma mind of the 20th Century.’ Dr. Tinnin turned Pierre Janet’s work of the 1880’s into a comprehensive treatment model for effectively treating trauma and dissociation. I was able to assist in some of the research that demonstrated the effectiveness of this treatment. Lou taught me two very important ingredients in successfully treating trauma: the value of narrative and a fearless approach of the client’s traumatic material."

- J. Eric Gentry Ph.D., "Forward Facing Trauma Therapy"

“The therapeutic implications of this concept are profound, and are addressed in detail, providing theory and application of techniques that embrace both cognitive and non-verbal somatic/behavioral elements.”

- Robert Scaer, MD, Author of The Body Bears the Burden, The Trauma Spectrum, and Eight Keys to Body-Brain Balance

More Testimonials