Yesterday I presented my Trauma Processing Model at the Metanoia Staff–Student Conference. This piece of work began not as a formal research project, but in my own therapy.
The model frames trauma work as a space journey. It moves from conceptual distance in the Control Room, through increasing engagement in Earth’s Orbit and Deep Space, towards emotional impact in Entering a Star and the Event Horizon, with the risk of overwhelm represented as the Black Hole. Purple Earth symbolises a psychologically safe base, and Thrusters represent coping strategies and ego state shifts that regulate pace and intensity.
It is a Transactional Analysis informed narrative framework designed to support pacing, containment, and choice. It is not a rigid protocol, but a map that helps therapists and clients track proximity to traumatic material, strengthen Adult and Nurturing Parent functions, and avoid re traumatisation while still allowing meaningful processing.
The model emerged from my own experience as a South Asian trainee navigating trauma shaped by intergenerational silence, racialisation, and cultural expectations around composure and endurance. Storytelling, particularly metaphor, became a way of approaching what felt unspeakable without collapsing into exposure.
I would not be me if there were not an AI element. The images were generated using AI tools, and alongside the clinical model I have developed a generative AI companion designed to increase accessibility. It is not a replacement for therapy, but a structured scaffold that helps therapists and clients create their own metaphoric journeys under a clear contract.
If I am honest, I was anxious. I was on at 4pm, that end of day slot when energy can dip. Presenting something that grew out of your own therapy carries a particular vulnerability. It holds intellectual risk and personal exposure in equal measure.
The response was deeply encouraging. There was a great deal of positive feedback.
The article outlining the model in more depth is currently under review at the Transactional Analysis Journal. Whatever the outcome of that process, presenting it publicly at Metanoia felt like an important step. It moved the work from the privacy of therapy into shared professional dialogue.
It reminded me that some models begin not in certainty, but in necessity. Sometimes the most meaningful theory is born from lived experience.