Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM)

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Maxine Harris, Roger Fallot · 1998 · Washington, DC

What it is

TREM is a manualised, gender-specific, psychoeducational and skills-building group programme. Clinicians and service users at Community Connections, a non-profit mental-health agency in Washington, DC, developed it in the 1990s. Maxine Harris led the work, with Roger Fallot and the agency's Trauma…

Format

• Format
• One topic per weekly 75-minute session, delivered in the prescribed order. Session counts reconciled: the 1998 manual ran 33 weekly sessions. Community Connections staff described the current women's version in 2007 as 29 leader-driven sessions in three core sections. CEBC and the NREPP-derived…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Closed group of about 8–10 members (CEBC allows 3–10), run by 2–3 co-leaders. For women's groups the leaders are female.
• TREM is a manualised, gender-specific, psychoeducational and skills-building group programme. Clinicians and service users at Community Connections, a non-profit mental-health agency in Washington, DC, developed it in the 1990s. Maxine Harris led the work, with Roger Fallot and the agency's Trauma Work Group. It was built for women survivors of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the public mental-health system:…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• One topic per weekly 75-minute session, delivered in the prescribed order. Session counts reconciled: the 1998 manual ran 33 weekly sessions. Community Connections staff described the current women's version in 2007 as 29 leader-driven sessions in three core sections. CEBC and the NREPP-derived…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Loyalty conflicts and distress.
• Practise in a safe setting first.
• Identifying current abuse. Follow C5.
• Religious or family pressure to forgive.
• Deferring to others, including the leaders.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.