This session demonstrates the core of ITR for treating trauma. Linda helps Diane to create a “Graphic Narrative” – a trauma story done in a series of drawings on separate pieces of paper, based on the Instinctual Trauma Response – ITR. Because trauma stories are fragmented and do not follow a linear sequence, these individual drawings need to be rearranged with a therapist’s help. A “before” and an “after” drawing serve as bookends to make the story complete and – most importantly – to finally bring the trauma to an end.

Diane is telling the story of the tonsillectomy she had when she was about two because in the ITR method it is crucial that the earliest traumas are processed first. These are usually preverbal experiences called “foundation traumas.” Since most troubling trauma symptoms are not stored verbally the emphasis is on doing the drawings first and then putting words to them.

The capstone of the processing is putting the drawings on the wall so Linda can “re-present” the story using Diane’s words to make the event truly history – no longer plaguing her now.

Commentary by Linda Gantt, PhD, ATR-BC

This video was formerly included in the Expressive Media Arts Therapies Films Collection distributed by Expressive Media Inc.