A person can study with ITR Training Institute for personal knowledge, but to practice ITR a person needs to complete the ATC 101, ATC 102 Live, and the Consultation Calls.  See more under ITR Certification.

Anyone can take this course. The ATC 101 is the prerequisite to all other ITR courses. The skills learned will equip a person to be trauma effective and supportive in any social or workplace environment. This is essential for caregivers, support staff, peer support staff, coaches, or mental health practitioners. It gives a person the ITR Certified Trauma Support Coach title. This course is 6 hours.

To keep the CTT credentials a person must pass the Reboot Call and then recertify every 2 years to be sure and keep up with the updates and innovations with ITR. Many people choose to do the Refresh Course 102 Live 1-day (6 hours with 6 CEs NASW and NBCC) to be ready for the call. Anyone with CTT credentials from over 2 years ago need to re-certify and all certifications are good for 2 years. After that CTT holders will have 2022 to comply and get recertified.

HOW GROUP CALLS WORK:

The calls are set up to give a person the opportunity to practice their ITR skills and learn from others as they present various parts of ITR. Besides this, the instructors can answer questions about a specific case to assist the facilitators in administering ITR. Private consultations are also available.

We have CEs available for NASW and NBCC. A certificate will generate after you finish the ATC 101 ONLINE course. You will be given a certificate at the end of the ATC 102 LIVE course. Do what your organization requires you to do with the certificate.

HelpForTrauma.com website has more comprehensive information on the intensive model and the method itself. Please visit there or call 800-755-6105 or email [email protected]

Yes. The goal is to start using the new skills you learned and get more comfortable with them. Bring your new work to the consultation calls to get feedback. Always be sure to practice within your scope and the laws of the state. 

ITR is an empowerment model. It works best when the person is internally motivated to actively engage in all components of therapy.

We decide if ITR “works” by looking at the pre-treatment and post-treatment scores on our assessments and by observations of behavior. In a research study we did on the first people to go through our intensive program we found these results:

“This was a naturalistic study with pre- and post-test data on the first 72 patients who completed the program.

Forty-five percent of the participants met the criteria for recovery, 44% were improved, 8% were unchanged, and 3% were worse after treatment. The improvement in scores on the post-treatment measures was robust and statistically significant for all groups of patients.” (Abstract, Gantt & Tinnin, 2007, Intensive trauma therapy of PTSD and dissociation: An outcome study. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 34 (1): 69-80).”

ITR will not work if the person is not on board and doesn’t want it to work. An example would be someone who has secondary gain from remaining in a patient role in order to receive disability payments. There have been some people who have been brought in by family members who are hoping the program will benefit their loved one but the loved one fights the process by foot-dragging. Occasionally, clients may experience external pressures to engage in the process and this can negatively impact outcomes. There have been others who are skeptical at first but they agree to try the process and are successful.

When trauma symptoms are too overwhelming, clients may be regressed and not ready to work through trauma re-processing. When this occurs, the individual needs to stabilize for a period of time before starting the method. Stability and readiness for treatment are crucial to ensure the successful resolution of traumatic stress symptoms.

If someone has mental disabilities or cognitive delays or deficits we work with the hometown team to find ways to modify doing the Graphic Narrative (GN). We want to make certain the GN is as effective as it can be with any medical conditions or learning disorders. We work to adapt our approach to an individual’s learning and expressive styles.

All of our instructors are certified and work through the ITR Training Institute only. We do not know what other people are teaching and have no control over what they say and do. We do not recommend this. The only certification you can get in this method is through the ITR Training Institute, LLC.