One-on-one treatment
How TIR works in practice.
A clear, honest picture of what to expect, before you begin.
This page explains what happens within a TIR session, the principles that guide the process, and what makes this method distinct from other therapeutic approaches. It's intended to give you a clear and honest picture of what to expect before you begin.
The relationship
A different kind of therapeutic relationship.
In many therapeutic settings, the practitioner takes an active role in interpreting your experience, offering advice, or providing reassurance. TIR works differently. The facilitator operates within a strict set of professional guidelines, known as the Rules of Facilitation, which are designed to keep the process entirely person-led.
The facilitator's role is not to tell you what your experiences mean, how you should feel about them, or what you ought to do next. It is to hold a structured, attentive space in which you can review your own experiences, integrate them, and arrive at your own insights and resolutions.
Every answer you give will be acknowledged. Every concern you raise will be addressed. The process moves at your pace and in your direction, not ours.
This approach is not passive. It requires close attention, precise communication, and a consistently non-judgmental presence. It is also why the results of TIR tend to feel genuinely owned by the person who experiences them.
What guides each session
Five principles, applied every time.
Whatever the topic, whatever the day, every session is held within these five guiding principles.
Principle 01
No interpretation or advice
You will not be told what your experiences mean, analysed, or guided toward a particular conclusion. Insight emerges from you, in your own time, through the structured process of revisiting and reviewing.
Principle 02
You are always in control
If a question arises and you are not ready to explore it, you simply say so. You will never be pushed to share or confront anything before you are ready. The session adapts to you, not the other way around.
Principle 03
Repetition as a tool, not a sign of failure
A distinctive feature of TIR is that the same questions or prompts are returned to multiple times. This is intentional. Each pass allows a new layer to surface, progressively reducing emotional intensity. This process is called unlayering.
Principle 04
Full confidentiality
Nothing discussed in a session will be raised outside of it, with you or with anyone else. The only exceptions are mandatory safeguarding obligations and consultation with a case supervisor, who is equally bound by the same rules of confidentiality.
Principle 05
A distraction-free environment
At the start of each session you'll be checked in with to confirm the environment is properly set up: phone off, sufficient food and rest beforehand, and anything else needed to support a settled, focused session. This is not incidental, the quality of your attention directly affects the quality of the work.
What happens
What happens within a session.
Each session moves through a clear sequence, opening, the main viewing process, and a clear close. Sessions don't follow a rigid clock; they continue until a natural end point is reached.
Opening
Check-in
Each session opens with a check-in on how you are and whether anything is currently holding your attention. If something is, it's addressed first, so that your focus is fully available for the main work.
Main work
The viewing process
A structured, calm revisiting of past experiences or unwanted patterns. A series of instructions and questions guide the process, returning to them as many times as needed until the emotional charge connected to what is being addressed has been fully reduced.
Close
A clear end
Before the session closes, you'll be asked whether there is anything you want to say. The end of each session is clearly marked. You will not leave mid-process.
Worth noting:At times, more than one area may be addressed within a single session, each reaching its own end point. Occasionally a "flat point" is reached instead: a moment where all currently available emotional charge has been reduced, even if the work is not yet fully complete. Both are valid and productive outcomes for a session.
Terms you'll encounter
A short glossary of TIR terms.
A few specific terms come up regularly in this work. None of them are jargon to memorise, but knowing what they mean before you begin removes friction during sessions and helps you understand the structure of what's happening.
- TermEnd point
- The moment at which an item has been fully addressed and the emotional charge connected to it is gone. It's characterised by a clear felt shift, attention moves from inward and past-focused to outward and present. An end point is not a decision or a conclusion. It's an experience.
- TermFlat point
- A moment at which all currently available emotional charge on an item has been reduced, without necessarily reaching full resolution. The session pauses here and may return to the item in a subsequent session once more charge has become available to address.
- TechniqueUnlayering
- The repetitive questioning technique at the heart of TIR. By returning to the same question or experience multiple times, the process progressively uncovers deeper layers of the held charge, allowing each to be addressed and released in turn.
- TechniqueUnblocking
- Alongside TIR, sessions may also draw on a technique called Unblocking. Where TIR works with specific past incidents, Unblocking addresses mental and emotional blocks around a particular subject or pattern, using a structured series of questions explored repeatedly until the topic reaches an end point. Most useful when a subject carries significant weight and feels worth exploring in depth.
- ConceptFlows
- The directions of causation explored within a session. TIR examines not only what has happened to you, but also anything you may have caused to happen to others, and experiences you may have witnessed. Addressing all three directions produces a more thorough and lasting resolution.
Safety & agency
If something doesn't feel right.
Throughout a session, you're encouraged to speak up at any point if any of the following arise. Raising these things is not an interruption, it's part of how the process works.
Things to say if they come up
Addressing them promptly allows the session to remain productive and the space to remain genuinely safe.
- You feel you may be done with what is being addressed
- Something feels wrong or uncomfortable in the session
- The item no longer feels relevant or useful to explore
- A concern arises that you want to raise
Worth noting:It's also worth knowing that other people in your life may not fully understand the experience of releasing emotional charge. The shifts that occur through TIR can be significant, and it's not always easy for others to be in tune with what you're moving through. This is normal and doesn't indicate that something has gone wrong.
Read more
Two further pages, if you'd like to go deeper.
Trauma Recovery Sessions
The full four-session TIR programme: who it's for, how it's structured, what clients experience, and how to begin with a free 15-minute consultation.
See the full programmeWhat is trauma? - by Suz Ferreira
A longer article on trauma and PTSD: what trauma actually is, how the nervous system responds, and why insight and effort alone are sometimes not enough.
Read the articleBegin with a conversation.
You do not need to have everything figured out before reaching out. For many people, the first step is simply recognising that something may still feel unresolved, emotionally, physically or within the nervous system itself.