The TR6 Trauma Model™ Assessment
A Descent into Shadow
A professional self-assessment tool that maps where you may be situated within the six universal stages of complex, relational trauma, with somatic integration.
Not a diagnostic tool. A therapeutic guide for reflection and support.
Keeping your results
Your responses are private and are not stored anywhere unless you are signed in. Your results are shown to you once, so please download or print the PDF on the results page if you would like to keep them or bring them to a therapist. Prefer them saved so you can compare future attempts? Create a free account first.
Six Stages. One Map.
The TR6 Trauma Model™ identifies six universal stages through which individuals oscillate as they adapt to complex trauma. Together, these stages form a single map of human adaptation, tracing movement from unreconciled harm toward reclamation and transcendence. Each stage encompasses cognitive, affective, and somatic domains, allowing clinicians and individuals to identify both adaptive and maladaptive patterns of functioning across the recovery process.
Your results are not a diagnosis, they are a map. They are designed to help you identify where you are adapting well, even in the presence of difficult emotions, where you are moving through recovery, and where you may have become stuck in maladaptive patterns that continue to influence your thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, and nervous system. Awareness is the first step towards change. If your results indicate areas of entrapment or maladaptive adaptation, your next step is to deepen your understanding. The TR6 Trauma Model™: Descent into the Shadow by Deirdre Rolfe provides the most comprehensive explanation of each stage, the mechanisms that keep people stuck, and practical pathways for moving towards adaptive functioning, integration, and recovery. For those seeking additional support, working with the author or a trauma-informed practitioner trained in the TR6 Trauma Model™ can provide personalised guidance in applying the model safely and effectively to your own recovery.
Read about the six stagesThe book
Go deeper with the complete TR6 Trauma Model™
Written by psychotherapist Deirdre Rolfe, The TR6 Trauma Model™ is a comprehensive, original system for understanding, navigating and transforming trauma. Developed from peer-reviewed work published in the Australian Counselling Research Journal (ACRJ), the book integrates the complete model, assessment and scoring system with six in-depth stage chapters, somatic insight, existential exploration, reflection and shadow work, and practical tools for recovery. Designed for both personal and therapeutic use, TR6 offers a non-pathologising map you can return to again and again, helping you identify where you are, understand what lies beneath, and navigate a direction forward.
More than a book. A map. A model. A system for going deeper, and finding your way forward.
Who is this for
Who is this model for?
- Clinicians and trauma-informed practitioners seeking a structured framework for understanding why some clients remain psychologically, somatically or existentially stuck, despite sustained therapeutic intervention.
- Trauma survivors who have engaged in therapy, self-reflection and recovery work, yet continue to experience unresolved pain, repetition, emotional collapse, relational injury or a persistent sense of being unable to move forward.
- Researchers, educators and mental health professionals interested in a stage-based model that maps the progression from trauma exposure to adaptive recovery or maladaptive entrapment.
- Individuals navigating complex trauma, betrayal, re-injury or unresolved relational harm who need language for the internal states that often remain hidden beneath functioning, resilience or survival.
Copyright, trademark and terms of use
The TR6 Trauma Model™ is original work by Deirdre Rolfe. The model, its six stages and ladder structure, the above-the-line and below-the-line framework, the question set, the scoring and interpretation system, and all accompanying language are protected by copyright and trademark, and have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed research journal. This is original clinical and scholarly work. It is not AI-generated content, although AI tools were used to build this application and, at times, to assist with reference formatting.
You are welcome to
- Share the link to this assessment with friends, family or clients.
- Take the assessment yourself as often as you like.
- Download, print and keep your own personal results.
- Share your own results with a therapist or support person.
Strictly not permitted
- Copying, reproducing, screenshotting for redistribution, adapting, translating or republishing any part of this work.
- Using the model, questions, scoring or wording in your own practice, training, course, product, publication, research or content.
- Monetising or commercialising it in any form, directly or indirectly.
- Using it to train, fine-tune or prompt any machine learning system.
No licence, express or implied, is granted by your use of this assessment. Unauthorised use will be pursued. Permission requests and licensing enquiries can be directed to Deirdre Rolfe at counselloroncall.com.au.