What happens in a TIR session?
We live in a world interrupted by technology by the hustle and bustle of a 21st century world. People don’t have enough time for each other, it often doesn’t feel safe enough to talk about the very things that trouble us the most. A TIR session gives time out to offload and talk without outside distractions. The environment is safe and quiet. It is all yours.
A TIR session works on a one-to-one basis, with a client who is called a “viewer” and a therapist who is called a “facilitator”. It is the facilitator’s job to guide the viewer through the troubling incident until an “end point” is reached. From tears of laughter to exhaustion and relief, this is the ultimate goal of any TIR session. It is rewarding for both parties.
Chris Jefferson, Chief Operating Officer of The Serenitas Foundation and intern
The session takes place in a relaxed comfortable set-up, where the viewer can talk without being interrupted or feeling that they are being in some way “boring”.
The facilitator asks the viewer to recollect the event. Once this is done, they are asked to go back to the start of the incident in their mind and, when they have done so, talk it through again. It is like rewinding and replaying a film. Those who do TIR say it is like a journey. One part of your brain is recounting the story, while the other part is processing it and thinking about it in a way that may never have considered before.
As the viewer talks, there will most likely be changes in the person’s emotions and the meaning they give to the upsetting event. The facilitator’s job is to keep the viewer on track so an “end point” is reached.
Most of the time the viewer becomes unaware of the person opposite them, apart from hearing their voice from time to time, or when they come to the end of a particular chain of memories.
If, for whatever reason, a session is interrupted or has to end prematurely the viewer will never be left in a bad frame of mind. There are techniques for grounding the person and leaving them positive. TIR will never leave someone unhappy, even if their journey must be completed at a later date.