The Rewind Technique: Effective treatment for trauma (PTSD) and phobias

Excellent course. A brilliantly encouraging and supportive environment in which to learn

HARRIET, WORKSHOP PARTICIPANT

Life-changing! A great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

NURSE (PREVIOUSLY TRAUMATISED BY A CAR ACCIDENT)

Why take this course

We have over 20 years of experience in teaching the rewind technique to health and welfare professionals – we’ve drawn on that experience to develop a course which gives you enough time to thorough absorb and practice the technique, understand why it works and to experience it yourself, so that you leave confident in your ability to use the rewind safely and effectively.

The Rewind Technique* is an effective psychological intervention for successfully treating trauma and phobias and one of the most important skills you need to master to be able to work successfully with any anxiety disorder or condition which may have developed as a result of unresolved trauma. Even the most severe phobic and post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms can be successfully addressed using the the rewind technique taught on this 2-day course, which has been refined* in line with understandings from neuroscience to make it as safe and reliably effective as possible.

An essential therapeutic technique to have in your therapeutic ‘toolkit’, it is important to learn and practice it under the careful guidance of our expert tutor – you will leave the course knowing how to use the rewind technique safely and effectively having watched live demonstrations, had plenty of time to practice the steps involved with fellow students, the opportunity to experience the technique yourself and more. Our workshop has limited numbers so you will have plenty of opportunities for asking questions and the tutor, who has extensive clinical experience.

Using the rewind technique you can, often surprisingly quickly, detraumatise bad memories, stop flashbacks and other PTSD symptoms, cure phobias, banish nightmares and reduce anxiety so you can help the victims of abuse, rape, violence, car accidents, fire, terrorism and panic attacks, heart attacks and other life-threatening experiences.

Another key benefit of this technique is non disclosure – there is no need for people to repeatedly revisit or talk about specific details of the events that have traumatised them.  This helps avoid embedding the trauma further and making the situation worse – as can sometimes inadvertently happen in other therapeutic approaches to treating trauma – and helps prevent the therapist or counsellor being vicariously traumatised by what they might hear.

It is also invaluable when working therapeutically with people who have suffered persistent physical or sexual abuse, and people with OCD. People suffering from other conditions, such as depression, addictions or uncontrollable anger, may have experienced a traumatic event, which needs to be successfully detraumatised in order for them to move on with their lives.

As a result of our training in the rewind technique – which we have been delivering for over 20 years – our graduates have brought relief to literally thousands of people  (eg. case history / PTSD Resolution).

Please note

This is a powerful technique, which needs to be implemented with care – we recommend you take the time to learn it in person in a small group with a skilled and highly experienced tutor who can guide you through the important steps involved, oversee you as you practise them, answer your questions and give you crucial direct feedback. The version of the rewind technique* you will learn on this course has been refined in line with understandings from neuroscience to make it as safe and reliably effective as possible.

The course is taught over two days to ensure you have enough time to thoroughly absorb and practice the steps involved so that you are confident in using it and know how to do so safely and effectively with clients. You will also learn when it is NOT appropriate to use this technique and how to ensure you avoid embedding any trauma further, or making a phobia worse.

Guided imagery and visualisation skills form an essential part of the rewind technique, which is why they are a requirement for attending this course.

This has huge potential to change people's lives for the better. I can't wait to put what I've learnt here to good use

PSYCHIATRIC SUPPORT WORKER

What will you learn

• How to detraumatise people quickly and safely
• The necessary skills to treat even severe phobias
• Why this version of the rewind technique is so effective, and how it works

Under careful guidance from the tutor, you will:

• revisit key skills for relaxing clients in order to successfully work using the technique
• walk and talk through a step-by-step breakdown of the rewind technique
• see a live demonstration of working with a phobia or trauma
• practice each stage of the rewind technique in pairs
• practice the entire process, with other course participants, under supervision

You will also gain:

• Vital tools for psycho-education – both adding to your own understanding and to pass on to clients
• A clear understanding of the fear response and how PTSD and phobias develop
• The detrimental impact traumas and phobias can have on a person’s life
• The crucial role of the pattern-matching processes in the brain in triggering phobic responses and post traumatic stress symptoms
• How the main treatment techniques for treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sub-threshold trauma and phobias (including EMDR, EFT and CBT) work – their advantages and disadvantages
• Why the rewind technique draws on the innate ability we all have to recover from trauma
• Pre-disposing factors for suffering a problematic post-traumatic response (or developing a phobia)
• Why critical incident debriefing increases the incidence of PTSD
• How this version of the rewind technique has been modified to make it safer and more reliable
• Trauma-focused rewinding: the psycho-biological reason why this refined rewind technique works so consistently well
• A step-by-step breakdown of the essential stages of the rewind technique
• The chance to see a live demonstration of working with a phobia or trauma

You will leave with:

• The confidence to begin using the technique ethically and safely
• A clear understanding of the advantages of using a non-intrusive psychological technique to treat trauma, PTSD and phobias (where the client does not have to go into details about or repeatedly ‘revisit’ what has traumatised them)
• What to do if a client as an abreaction
• Important information about when not to use this technique – and what can be done instead
• An understanding of how the rewind technique can be used to work with Complex Trauma and cases involving ‘freeze’, shutdown or dissociative responses
• How you can carefully apply this technique to relieve a huge range of anxiety disorders
• Greater confidence in dealing with anxiety disorders and distress caused by trauma, phobias and flashbacks
• An understanding of how rapidly transformative this technique can be; on the last afternoon we view a filmed therapy session (and follow up) in which Joe Griffin uses the rewind technique to relieve a young man of his severe shark phobia

There is also plenty of opportunity for you to ask questions and to experience and practice, under careful guidance, the various stages of the rewind technique yourself.

Who is this course suitable for?

Anyone working with distressed, phobic or traumatised people, who has already taken our Guided Imagery and Visualisation workshop (and ideally the Therapeutic Power of Language workshop too) as these skills are essential components of the rewind technique.

If you help traumatised people (including children) or people suffering from any form of phobia or anxiety disorder – this includes: psychotherapists, counsellors, mental health nurses, OTs, health visitors, social workers, psychiatrists, GPs, clinical psychologists, midwives, welfare officers, youth workers, hypnotherapists and those working with traumatised members of public services, such as: firefighters, police, paramedics and military personnel – you will find the rewind technique and associated skills hugely helpful.

Course requirements

Guided imagery, relaxation and visualisation are an integral component of the Rewind Technique – if you don’t already have experience in using these skills therapeutically with others you must complete our Guided Imagery and Visualisation for Therapeutic Change workshop before attending this course (this is always run the day before our rewind technique training).

This is to ensure you get the most out of this 2-day course and also have the necessary skills for practising the rewind technique safely and effectively.  You would also find it useful to attend the Therapeutic Power of Language workshop beforehand if you can. All 3 workshops count towards Part 1 of the HG Diploma.

Ros Townsend’s live online training Trauma: Patterns of the past is also useful for anyone working with or supporting someone suffering from unresolved trauma, or who would like to understand their own experiences of trauma better. She also runs a workshop on working with Complex Trauma.

*About the Rewind Technique

The Rewind Technique originated from one developed by Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP, when it was called the Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation protocol.  A variant of this was developed by Dr David Muss, who called it the Rewind Technique.

The version of the Rewind Technique you will learn on this 2-day course was refined by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell, co-founders of the human givens approach, to make it as reliably effective and safe as is possible by aligning the method with their insights into how trauma and phobias are processed in the brain. HG Therapists now follow a specific Rewind Protocol which follows the essential steps of the process that Griffin and Tyrrell set out.

Course format

This intense 2-day training proceeds through a blend of talks, live demonstrations, skill-developing exercises, practice sessions (under careful guidance) and deconstruction of filmed examples of the technique being used, including one with a severely traumatised young woman. There is also plenty of opportunity for networking and discussion during the breaks.

The course was previously entitled: The fast phobia and trauma (PTSD) cure – a 2-day workshop in the rewind technique

On completion of this training you’ll receive CPD certificates from the College and the CPD Standards Office.