Rachel Lee WAND

​After practising Lifespan Integration (LI) for approximately ten years, my professional journey led me to TiFT® (Trauma Integrating Flow Therapy), developed by Dr. Anandi Janner Steffan.

This integrative therapeutic approach explores how our life experiences shape the way we see ourselves, connect with others and respond to everyday situations. It is intended not only for people experiencing the effects of trauma, but also for those facing emotional or relationship difficulties without necessarily identifying a traumatic event in their personal history.

When Past Experiences Continue to Shape the Present

Throughout our lives, particularly in our earliest relationships, we develop ways of protecting ourselves, seeking safety and maintaining connections with others.

These adaptations may serve us well in certain circumstances but become limiting when our environment or relationships change.
 

They may show up as:

• Fear of rejection, abandonment or conflict.

• Difficulty trusting others, setting boundaries or expressing personal needs.

• A tendency to put others' needs before our own.

• A strong need for control, hypervigilance or intense emotional reactions.

• Recurring relationship patterns, persistent anxiety or a sense of feeling stuck.

These difficulties do not necessarily stem from an identifiable traumatic event. They may also be connected to relational experiences involving insecurity, unmet emotional needs or repeated experiences of disconnection.
 

Understanding Is Not Always Enough to Create Change

Understanding our personal history and making sense of our experiences is important. Yet insight alone may not be enough to change deeply rooted emotional, physical or relational responses.
 

TiFT® takes a whole-person approach, considering emotions, bodily sensations, thoughts, personal history and attachment experiences.

It draws on attachment theory, affective neuroscience and body-oriented therapeutic approaches.
 

How Does TiFT® Work?

TiFT® focuses primarily on how you experience and respond to situations in the present.

It understands certain emotional reactions, anxieties and relationship difficulties as survival adaptations developed to cope with situations experienced as difficult, threatening or unsafe.

The therapeutic process aims to recognise these adaptations and help them become more flexible, without requiring intense reliving of painful experiences.
 

The approach emphasises:

• Respecting your pace: a gradual process adapted to your individual resources and sense of safety.

• Attending to the body and emotions: recognising physical and emotional responses beyond intellectual understanding alone.

• Relational safety: an attentive and supportive therapeutic relationship in which attachment experiences can be explored.

• Restoring flexibility and flow: opening up new possibilities for responding to situations and relating to yourself and others.
   

Who Is It For?

TiFT® may be helpful if you wish to:

• Better understand and change recurring relationship patterns.

• Ease emotional insecurity, fear of abandonment or attachment-related difficulties.

• Develop greater confidence, emotional stability and freedom in your relationships.

• Address the lasting effects of distressing or traumatic experiences, whether recent or long past.

• Feel less constrained by automatic responses that no longer serve you in your present life.

You do not need to have experienced a major traumatic event, or even be able to identify a specific event, to benefit from exploring these patterns in therapy.

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For more information about TiFT® visit  https://www.tift.consulting/en/tift.html