Frank A. Gerbode wrote of a method known as traumatic incident reduction (TIR).
He teaches and lectures internationally, and is the author of Beyond Psychology: An Introduction to Metapsychology (), published in 1988. This book provided the first published description of TIR.
He edited the special issue "Trauma treatment techniques : innovative trends" of Haworth Press's Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
Gerbode was for many years a Scientologist, and at one time ran the Palo Alto, California Mission of Scientology. He broke from the Church of Scientology in 1982. He later developed TIR, starting from Dianetics and working back to its origins.
In 1984, Gerbode founded the Institute for Research in Metapsychology and the Center for Applied Metapsychology in Palo Alto, California. Today, this function is fulfilled by the Traumatic Incident Reduction Association, a division of Applied Metapsychology International.
Gerbode currently resides in Sonoma, California.
Gerbode and "Modern Metapsychology"
Frank A. Gerbode created a psychotherapeutic modality (whose adherents often characterize it as a "movement") that he called "metapsychology," forming the term not as a compound of "psychology" with the prefix "meta," but as a portmanteau representing a fusion of metaphysics and psychology. Gerbode uses a client-centered approach that supports clients in their efforts to improve their self-organization, enhancing their strength for coping with past negative experiences. Using metapsychology as the basis, Gerbode uses traumatic incident reduction (TRI) to treat people experiencing psychological effects from traumatic incidents or clients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. which has the main purpose to connect the mind and body while maintaining a client-centered setting. It serves as a solid base in a client-centered psychology system because it involves what is common in experience, leading to an agreement and understanding This psychology is meant to emphasize the experiences as viewed by the client and not by the views of a psychologist trying to find out what the experience means to that person. Metapsychology allows people to recognize that they are in control of their own experiences. Once they can recognize these experiences, then they become aware of ways in which they can improve themselves and the environment around them. Gerbode's reasoning in his choice of the term "metapsychology" is best illustrated in his formulation, "While parapsychology and metaphysics concern themselves with uncommon experiences, metapsychology deals with what is common in experience."