Resolve Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with the Richards Trauma Process (TRTP™)
Are you in need of help but concerned about face to face sessions?
Hypnotherapy and TRTP can be delivered very effectively using Skype or Zoom.
What is PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)?
PTSD is an often debilitating condition that can develop in people who have experienced a traumatic event or multiple distressing events over time that threatened their safety.
For example, events such as sexual assault, life-threatening accidents, generalised physical and/or psychological abuse over time, workplace bullying, being a victim of other violent crime, and daily experiences of emergency services/defence personnel – all have the potential to generate PTSD symptoms within susceptible people. It is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign that the emotional and physiological systems of the body have been damaged.
The trauma can take years to be fully felt – particularly with childhood trauma. Extreme stress over long periods of time depletes our physical and psychological resources. Stress hormones are pumped through the body and can ultimately cause serious illness.
So often, sufferers just keep on pushing through the stress and the emotional pain until they just can’t do it anymore.
What are the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
The PTSD sufferer experiences ongoing distress as a result of the trauma, which may be in the form of upsetting memories, intense fear, anxiety, sleeplessness or nightmares, hyper-vigilance, unreasonable anger, etc.
PTSD also triggers flashbacks to the event, leaving the sufferer feeling like they can never get away from the trauma like they are stuck inside the traumatic event permanently.
It is really common for victims of trauma to feel guilt and shame, particularly if the cause has been sexual assault or domestic violence. Victims often blame themselves for what happened and feel that they can’t get over it.
Thinking can become disordered and confused; concentration is harder, and it becomes a real struggle to maintain usual activities and relationships.
Often these symptoms prevent the sufferer from living a full and productive life.
TRTP™ gives hope, though.
How will TRTP™ reduce my symptoms of PTSD?
The Richards Trauma Process is a different approach that is specially designed to resolve symptoms of PTSD without revisiting the trauma.
TRTP™ can effectively, safely and quickly resolve symptoms of:
Anxiety
Panic
Hyper-vigilance
Flashbacks
Anger
Sleep problems
TRTP™ involves using structured therapy that acts to reduce the flight/flight response within your body so that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can return to its normal calm state or homeostasis while rebuilding your sense of self, empowering you to leave the trauma behind you and begin to create a new way forward.
TRTP™ is a structured hypnotherapy process to resolve the symptoms of PTSD
TRTP™ safely resolves symptoms without revisiting the trauma
TRTP™ is adaptable to suit each individual client’s needs and situation
TRTP™ reminds you that you have great strength within and empowers you to use your inner resources again to create the rich and wonderful life that you deserve.
“TRTP™ is a dynamic, rich and sequenced series of steps, which, if separated, would not be anywhere near as powerful. It is unique. It allows space for the individual client’s needs to be met.
TRTP™ makes use of hypnosis. Hypnosis is used in order to deal with trauma where it is stored – in the subconscious and in the body. (Levine, van der Kolk, Rothschild, Ogden).
TRTP™ is in alignment with the two requirements stated by van der Kolk, Levine and other trauma experts:
For trauma to be resolved –
1. the person must (somehow) be moved to an empowered position in regard to the trauma
2. the body must (somehow) know that the event/events are over
How is TRTP™ different to traditional ways of resolving PTSD?
TRTP™ is a highly effective blend of multiple psychotherapies. At its core, there is hypnotherapy, but it embraces many schools of thought.
TRTP™ “ is a truly eclectic therapy. It is a very structured yet dynamic process. It includes components of Gestalt, Mindfulness, Ego-state Therapy, Choice Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Parts Therapy, Emotion-focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dream Rehearsal Therapy and others”.
Judith Richards
Where traditional treatment like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help you manage the symptoms, and prescribed medication reduces or dulls the symptoms, in most cases TRTP™ resolves the symptoms so that you can live a life free of PTSD. Talking therapies can be very helpful in allowing you to understand why you feel so bad, and in developing strategies to manage your symptoms. But, resolving the symptoms can take a very long time. Traditional treatments also often require you to keep going back over the distressing event/s. While it is useful to understand why you feel as you do, continuously revisiting the event can retraumatise you. In a typical TRTP™ / hypnotherapy session you don’t need to keep talking about your trauma. We do not take you into the trauma. We will take a brief history in the first session and determine an appropriate treatment protocol, but we won’t need to keep discussing what happened and how it has affected you. This first session will also introduce you to the experience of hypnosis and help you to begin to feel a sense of calm and of being in control. Subsequent sessions will then progressively move through the Richards Trauma Process. This involves reducing the flight/flight response so that the ANS can return to its normal calm state of homeostasis, while rebuilding your sense of self, empowering you to leave the trauma behind you and begin to create a new way forward. How does hypnotherapy work?
Hypnotherapy induces a deep state of calm within the mind and body, very much like the effect of guided meditation. This deep state of calm takes the client into an altered state of consciousness so that the part of the mind known as the sub-conscious can be accessed. It is in the subconscious that the memory of the trauma is stored and where the emotional response that triggers the fight / flight response occurs. This originates in the amygdala. The analytical, logical, conscious part of the brain knows that the trauma is in the past and is over. It knows that the rape, the bullying, the violent attack or whatever the traumatic event was, is in the past. But, the sub-conscious does not. It holds very tenaciously to the memory of the trauma at a deep emotional level. Therefore, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) remains on alert, always ready to protect you against the perceived threat, as though it were still there, still happening.
Using very specific and targeted hypnotherapy, the sub-conscious can be reprogrammed so that it can accept that the trauma is over, that it is all in the past, and that the psychological and physiological fear / anxiety responses are no longer needed. The entire system can return to calm.
Rather than feeling that your PTSD controls you, you will gain a strong sense of being in control again. **Results may vary from client to client, but with a deep commitment to change, and a willingness to engage fully in the process, you are empowered and extraordinary shifts in your emotional state occur.
My name is Trish Dewberry and I am a certified practising TRTP therapist. If you want to explore how TRTP can help you book an appointment via the button below: