Two local mental health practitioners have trained in a new form of therapy to work with victims and survivors of The Trouble living with trauma-related illnesses, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Raymond Farrell and Mairead Millmore are part of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) counselling services.

The pair are two of the four mental health practitioners trained by SEFF in Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories Therapy (RTM).

RTM is a non-drug, non-traumatising treatment that re-programmes the neurological connection between the brain’s feeling centre and specific traumatic memories. It requires three or four 90-minute therapy sessions.

Both Raymond and Mairead are enthusiastic about the therapy and the benefits it can have for the treatment of PTSD in Northern Ireland (NI), with SEFF the first NI-based victim and survivor group to train counsellors in this new therapy to treat trauma-related illness.

RTM originated in the United States, where it was devised by Dr. Frank Burke, who worked with a team of practitioners after the events of 9/11 on survivors who experience significant trauma.

It was initially used with the emergency services, and American soldiers.

Mairead said: “When you’re a counsellor, it’s not a 'one size fits all' approach – you work with the individual persons in front of you, and as you become more experienced, you have this kind of a toolbox of resources, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing."

She continued: “I wanted to train in RTM because I believe the normal talking therapies don't work as effectively, in the sense that you see the person re-traumatising in front of your eyes, because they have to talk about the event.

"With RTM, they don't have to talk about the event, because it is a neurological process.”

Mairead was the one who brought the suggestion of training SEFF practitioners to its Director of Service, Kenny Donaldson, and funding for the training was secured via The Victims and Survivors Service.

The pair of mental health practitioners believe that RTM could help many people get to the root of their trauma.

Mairead said: “Sometimes what you find is what we call ‘revolving door’ clients where you work with them, and they get better for a little while, and then they present for counselling again.

"And so I wanted something that was going to get to the root of the trauma, and as you can see from the evidence-based research, it eradicates nightmares and flashbacks for 90 per cent of the participants.”

Explaining further, Raymond added: “It is not just for people involved in Troubles-related trauma. There has been proven, evidence-based results with other traumas; such as domestic violence, road traffic accidents, or sexual abuse."

Mairead believes that the process is particularly effective for those with multiple traumas. She said: "We primarily work with victims and survivors of The Troubles, but very often there are other traumas when the person comes to counselling."

Explaining the mindset of someone who is living with PTSD or any form of trauma, Raymond said: “They are living in that frame of what happened to them; their whole physical life, whole mental life and whole social life becomes part of the trauma.

"We find, with the clients, that trauma has changed their whole life.”

Mairead said: “All of the training we have done, it all has its place. I think the RTM is a different approach, and may be useful for people who have tried everything and say 'counselling doesn’t work', but maybe it is a case that the method doesn’t work, and this gives them another option to try.”

Kenny Donaldson said: “As a result of funding secured via The Victims and Survivors Service, we were able to offer three members of SEFF's clinical and wider counselling team the opportunity to train in RTM techniques.

"SEFF aspires to offer a full complement of options to someone requiring to engage in therapy, and due to this high prevalence of PTSD or PTSD-like symptoms within our membership, we were enthusiastic about the prospect of having some of our personnel lead within the victim and survivor sector in being trained in this new approach for NI [mental health] practitioners.

"RTM is yet another string to our bow, and illustrates the ambition and drive for betterment within the community and voluntary sector," he added.