ITR, the Instinctual Trauma Response, is the natural response of our brain when we are faced with trauma. ITR is a brain-based recovery programme developed by psychiatrist Professor Louis Tinnin and art therapist Dr Linda Gantt. It is accredited for use in the USA and is used widely for recovery from traumatic stress symptoms and PTSD. Go to HelpForTrauma.com

Rachel Cooper is the first ITR-certified trauma specialist in the UK. ITR uses neuroscience and art therapy together to process trauma. Often we can become stuck in one of the six phases of trauma, so when we are triggered during normal life we feel like we are being traumatised again.

During trauma, our frontal cortex/logical brain goes offline. This is a natural response to protect ourselves from difficult things. However, this can mean that the trauma has no time-stamp so we keep living it again and again or have flashbacks. Sometimes we don’t understand why we do certain things, but our bodies are doing what they need to do to survive.

Using unconscious memories, and fragments of the original memories, ITR brings them into consciousness for the whole brain to to process in sequential order without having to re-live the actual trauma. Using art with the Graphic Narrative® you express what is often stuck in our limbic system (the emotional/non-verbal creative part of our brain), bringing it to the frontal cortex (the logical/verbal thinking part) to be time-stamped and understood as over and in the past, with a beginning middle and end. Triggers are greatly reduced or eliminated once and for all.

“The hand draws what the mind forgets.” Dr. Linda Gantt, Co-Founder of ITR.

The ITR process is very gentle and takes much less time if done in longer intensive therapy sessions. If you have been in therapy for many months or years, but you feel stuck, this might be the answer to help you move forwards. Go to https://www.HelpForTrauma.com/videos for videos on ITR and testimonials of others who have done it.