Traumatic Incident Reduction and Critical Incident Stress Management: A Synergistic Approach

Edited by Victor R. Volkman
Loving Healing Press (2007)
ISBN 9781932690293
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (12/06)

“Traumatic Incident Reduction and Critical Incident Stress Management,” is the first book in a series. Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) involves utilizing techniques taken from applied metapsychology developed by Frank A. Gerbode, M.D. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) took the lessons of military psychiatry, community liaison psychiatry and developed them into a peer-support model for emergency responders. Both TIR and CISM offer “success in preventing and overcoming the debilitating psychological aftermath of traumatic experience.”

TIR is defined as, “a brief, one-on-one, non-hypnotic, person-centered, simple and highly structured method for permanently eliminating the negative effects of past traumas.” In it the client repeatedly reviews the traumatic memory, like watching a video, under safe conditions. The facilitator guides the client through the process without offering counseling by giving advice or interpretations. Using this process, it takes about 15-20 hours to eliminate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms. If the person is only experiencing Post Traumatic Stress because of an incident, then much less time is involved. It provides a way for the client to confront a painful incident and enables them to feel like they are developing mastery over the situation.

CISM is a “comprehensive, phase sensitive and integrated, multi-component approach to crisis/disaster intervention.” This type of intervention targets the response, not the event. It involves using a short-term, supportive, helping process. It is not like psychotherapy. There are four goals in CISM: stabilization; symptom reduction; return to adaptive functioning; and facilitation if access to continued care. Critical Incident Stress is considered to be a normal response occurring as a result of an abnormal event.

This book clearly defines CISM and TIR. It carefully explains which clients would benefit most from the treatment and which ones would not. Those that would not benefit include people that are psychotic or under the influence of drugs. It also offers the DSM criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I found this book to be very informative and think that it should be read by persons in both the mental health field and those whose careers involve dealing with people in crisis events, such as paramedics and firemen. People who work in these fields are also at risk for developing symptoms from dealing with stressful incidents. They might read “Traumatic Incident Reduction and Critical Incident Stress Management,” and discover that they would also benefit from this form of treatment. It might save some valuable employees from having to face early retirement.

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