"The Trauma Resiliency Model training was beautifully organized and presented with very clear PowerPoint presentations and accompanying handouts, integrated with personal field experiences illustrating the application of the model. The experiential and hand-on skills training left me feeling well-prepared to begin working with my clients immediately. It is the best training workshop I have ever attended." Susie Icaza, MFT, RPT, Pasadena, California

Introduction

The Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) is designed to stabilize the human nervous system and to reduce and/or prevent the symptoms of traumatic stress It is an integrative mind-body intervention, which focuses on the biological basis of trauma and the automatic defensive ways the body responds to threat and fear. TRM emphasizes that human responses to threat are primarily instinctive and biological.

After a traumatic experience, there can be a cascade of physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and spiritual responses. TRM explains these common responses from a biological perspective, which reframes the human experience from what is often one of shame and pathology to one of hope and biology. TRM is a comprehensive treatment that offers concrete and practical skills coupled with education about the biology of trauma. TRM's goal is to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of trauma by returning the body and mind back to balance. TRM can be used to treat any person who has experienced or witnessed any event that was perceived as life threatening or posed a serious injury to themselves or to others. It is helpful for workers in the front lines after traumatic events as it can reduce vicarious traumatic reactions and be used for self-care.

TRM is based upon the laws of nature, human anatomy and physiology, current research about the brain and somatic based therapies like Jane Ayres Sensory Integration Theory, Eugene Gendlin's Focusing and Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing.

TRM has been used internationally in projects in Thailand, Rwanda, Kenya, and in March 2010, Haiti; projects are in development in Gaza and Kuwait. TRM has been used domestically within the United States in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in the Department of Behavioral Health of San Bernardino County and the firestorms in Southern California. TRM's trainings were co-sponsored by the World Health Organization in China's Sichuan Province, the site of the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake.