The Richards Trauma Process (TRTP)

Angus is a trained counsellor and TRTP practitioner offering transformational coaching integrating counselling with The Richards Trauma Process. Angus offers TRTP both online and in person, for anyone ready to transform their life (not just those in agriculture).

Cultivating a growth mindset is vital for reinventing agriculture, essential yet it is only part of the solution. Our growth mindset alone may not create access to break through our self imposed limitations, those stories we unconsciously tell ourselves about the way things are.  There are some obstacles we can not think our way out of with a growth mindset alone.    Our trauma responses and adaptations we have developed to keep us safe are not stored in our conscious minds so we can’t think our way out of them, they are stored in our sub conscious mind and in our body.

When we find ourselves resisting, struggling, procrastinating, dissatisfied, unwell and challenged in life it can be a sign there could be underlying subconscious programs running our behaviour and thinking processes.  We can not consciously think our way out of subconscious programming.

Reinvention resurfaces traumas

Reinvention processes often include a process of disintegration and crumbling away of the old which can trigger our survival instincts and bring our old traumas to the surface.  When we are on a journey to becoming something new and different from what we are now we are in unfamiliar territory.  We feel disoriented as the familiar becomes unfamiliar.

Our subconscious beliefs that impact how we operate and make decisions in our businesses can be running on autopilot to keep us stuck in the status quo and playing it safe at the same time as our conscious mind is thinking about changing.  Our subconscious programming has been developed to keep us safe from things that have happened in the past however it can be holding us back from creating a different future.  This is why settling for the status quo is a popular choice. 

To grow and reinvent we must be able to get out of our comfort zone.  If something is holding us back from the edge of our comfort zone our subconscious trauma responses are often the key to unlocking this.

Anywhere you have been playing it safe can point you towards your trauma adaptations.  Playing it safe prevents us from tapping into our creativity.  Reinvention requires us to do our inner work which is an ongoing, evolving process not a destination we arrive at.  If we avoid this work and stay stuck in our heads we continue to build our businesses and lives on the unstable foundations of unprocessed trauma that will continue to sabotage us and our efforts to bring something truly new into the world.

Working through trauma expands our capacity

Our trauma patterns play out in how we run our businesses and in our relationship with land.  Traumatised agricultural landscapes are a direct reflection of the trauma adaptations carried by the people stewarding them. The landscape is a direct reflection of the people inhabiting it and vice versa.  Everything is connected.  Healthy people inhabit healthy land.  Traumatised people inhabit traumatised land.

“If you do not understand your role in the problem, it is difficult to be part of the solution.”

– David Peter Stroh

Being regenerative starts within us.  When we focus exclusively on regenerating everything outside of us our efforts will continue to be run by our automatic subconscious programming which can reduce our effectiveness and ability to achieve the results we know are possible.

When you are ready to stop trying to think yourself into a new reality and want to access the heart of the issue contact Angus to arrange a time for a chat about how TRTP can help.

Read From Surviving to Thriving, a blog Angus wrote about TRTP here.