The Rewind Technique  has  become internationally recognised as indispensable to treat PTSD.
  
Rewinding to Treat PTSD rapidly,effectively and enduringly was first introduced into the literature of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (by Dr.David Muss (founder of this association) back in 1991: ** "A new technique for treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder". British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1991, 30,91-92. 19 policeman with PTSD were treated with the Rewind and followed for two years. All reported being well, returned to work and there wasn't a single relapse.


                                                WHY WAS IARTT CREATED?

The reason I created the existence of  IARTT was  to impart this revolutionary therapy to individual therapists and charitable organisations
NOT TO ORGANISATION WHO USE IT SOLELY FOR PROFIT- E.G. EAPS,HG, RTM etc.

SPECIFIC ADVANTEGES OF USING THE MUSS REWIND TECHNIQUE
 
It is easily learnt. Applicable to survivors trans culturally and usually requires no more than two sessions to bring about closure for single traumas. The results are enduring** - a follow up of two years showed no relapses in that period of time.   



The Rewind is different from other imaginal exposure therapies because no details are disclosed to the therapist Hence the treatment is known as "closure without disclosure"
The benefits of non disclosure include:

• Minimizing the risk of the client being re-traumatized.   
• There is no fear of disclosing sensitive information e.g. In the case of servicemen, for example, about deployment. 
• For survivors of rape and sexual abuse the benefit of not having to disclose details of the event to a stranger is self-evident 
• Minimizing the risk to the counsellor of developing compassion fatigue, particularly for those therapists involved with heavy workloads. 

The Rewind  offers a way of permanently stopping the involuntary recall by filing the traumatic event so it comes under control..Voluntary recall remains.

***FOR SINGLE EVENT TRAUMAS, two to three sessions at most are required.  

FOR MULTIPLE EVENT TRAUMAS, such as: combat, sexual abuse; domestic violence; etc. each traumatic event can be dealt with separately IN ORDER OF THE MOST DISTRESSING  over separate sessions but, depending on the way the involuntary recall re presents, can also be dealt with in one session.
                   

SOME RESEARCH EXPLANATIONS FOR HOW THE REWIND WORKS AT NEURONAL LEVEL

The exact science of the Rewind treatment,as for all treatments,is unknown, but attempts have been put forth to explain the mechanism by:

Changes in the integration of the memory mediated by the modulation of arousal (Dietrich,2000), and dissociation from the traumatic sequellae (Dietrich et al,2000). 

Bio Informational Theory (Foa et al.) 1997Treatment aimed at introducing new information incompatible with some or all of the memory structure at the root of PTSD symptoms

Classical Learning ( rooted in basic behavioural psychology)Conditioning paradigm, the Trauamtic Memory is associated with implicit and explicit cues which evoke the memory outside of the conscious control of the suffferer. 

Dual Representational Theory (Cognitive) Brewin , Dagleish, Joseph 1968Traumatic memeories are held in two separate forms,explicit verbally accessible memories and implicit situationally accessibe memories 

Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing (Diamond , Campbell, Park et al (2007) based on animal studies.

Most recent thinking, based on neuronal research, suggests the mechanism of the intervention may be explained in terms of memory restructuring through the mechanism of reconsolidation Riccio,D.C., Millin,P.M. & Bogart,A.R. (2006). 

As the originator of Rewinding for PTSD I believe the real reason it is so effective is not because it restructures through reconsolidation(there is actually no organic proof of this theory) but it does so by bypassing the amigdala presenting it a confusing set of images which result in the trauma filed in memory with a good starting image but retaining the awful end images-hence the trauma can not be activated involuntarily(out side triggers) but only voluntarily -just as any other memory. Once rececalled,it returns to where all our memories stay rather than being trapped in our every day use of our brains.

For the self help e-book "The Trauma Trap" visit Amazon: