The 3-step process is an elegantly simple, yet comprehensive, step-by-step process which resolves extreme trauma and trauma-related issues – anxiety, depression, fears and phobias. It achieves results quickly, effectively and safely – in three steps which can take as few as 3-4 sessions.

 

​It is a truly integrated therapy. It is a very structured, yet dynamic process. It includes components of Gestalt, Mindfulness, Ego-state Therapy, Choice Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Parts Therapy, Emotion-focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dream Rehearsal Therapy and others.
 

It is a sequenced series of steps, which, if separated would not be anywhere near as powerful. It allows space for the individual client’s needs to be met.
 

The 3-step process makes use of the imagination.  Deep imagination is used in order to deal with trauma where it is stored – in the subconscious and in the body. (Levine, van der Kolk, Rothschild, Ogden).
 

The 3-step process is in alignment with the two requirements stated by van der Kolk, Levine and other trauma experts:
 

For trauma to be resolved –

1. the person must (somehow) be moved to an empowered position in regard to the trauma

2. the body must (somehow) know that the event / events are over
    

The 3-step process initially deals with the underlying, unconscious core beliefs which keep a person stuck in patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour. In dealing with this at the beginning of the process, self-sabotage is avoided during the following therapy.
 

The 3-step process then takes the emotional charge from the past, moving the client to a place of empowerment in relation to the trauma. Using the imagination - because imagination is the language of the unconscious - the client is shifted from fight/flight/freeze and moved to an empowered, self-regulated state. The sympathetic nervous system is calmed. The memory of the trauma is placed firmly in the past.
 

The 3-step process does not merely address the symptoms of trauma. It deals with the underlying cause of the problem, removing the emotional charge from the past and returning the person to a state of empowerment, returning the sympathetic nervous system to calm.