Reader's Guide to the Alan Gordon TMS Recovery Program
Welcome to the Reader's Guide to the TMS Recovery Program!
Alan Gordon’s TMS Recovery Program provides a wonderful overview of the psychological components of TMS and offers tools to help you identify some of the areas that you might begin to address through journaling during your work with the Structured Educational Program. In addition, we refer to the TMS Recovery Program at points throughout the Structured Educational Program. Therefore, we recommend going through the TMS Recovery Program before beginning the Structured Educational Program. However, this is completely up to you and what you feel would best help with your recovery.
The TMS Recovery Program is, as the name implies, an entire recovery program. However, reading the program and listening to the recordings really only provides a road-map. You have to figure out how the ideas in the program apply to your own life and then you have to do the actual work of applying the ideas. While it may be easy to read the program as if it were a magazine article, the important part is applying it, and you will only get out of it what you put into it.
To help you get the most that you can out of the program, we have created at Reader's Guide to the TMS Wiki. This breaks the program down into small chunks and provides activities to complement the readings and recordings. It forces you to slow the process down and will help you get the maximum benefit from the program.
We have separated the Recovery Program into daily sections and added some additional activities. After reading the selected section from the Program, you will have an exercise that builds on the reading from that day. Often the exercises are in the form of a journal entry or a question to ponder.
Structured TMS Recovery Program Daily Schedule
| Day A | Day B | Day C | Day D | Day E | Day F |
| Day G | Day H | Day I | Day J | Day K | Day L |
| Day M | Day N | Day O | Day P | Day Q | Day R |
Please keep in mind that although we give guidelines for your time as you work through the program, feel free to do the program more slowly. It is important that you feel comfortable with the amount of work each day, and are not putting pressure on yourself to get the program completed as quickly as possible.
| Journaling |
| Journal Activity:
Journaling can be an effective way to explore past life events, current stressors, and aspects of your personality that may contribute to TMS. Journal exercises throughout the Reader's Guide help you connect ideas from the TMS Recovery Program to your personal experience. To learn about journaling techniques, read the Wiki Page How do I journal?. Journal entries may bring up intense emotions and are not meant to replace work with a therapist. |
| Question To Ponder |
| Question to ponder:
These questions are designed to help your mind explore issues addressed in the TMS Recovery Program. While you do not need to spend a significant amount of time on these questions, it is important to keep them in the back of your mind as you go about your day. It is encouraged that, when you feel comfortable, you post responses to these questions in the TMS Recovery Program subforum. This is a great way to connect with the TMS community and get inspiration and support from others who have experience with the program. |
Additional community resources to complement the TMS Recovery Program can be found via our Community Resources for the TMS Recovery Program page.
