History and Tribute to Amanda Curtin
Amanda Curtin, LICSW, is the original researcher, creator, framer and author of the therapeutic model that addresses childhood trauma and neglect in the framework of the family-of-origin. Now called the Relationship Recovery Process (RRP), this model is the first to address formative, childhood trauma stemming from the family-of-origin. It is based on 40 years of Amanda’s relentless work to find a way of healing childhood trauma and neglect “in a good enough way” so that trauma survivors can move into the present, living their fullest life, full of choices rather than lives determined by toxic formative conditioning. Her compelling interest, confidence and commitment to healing lead her outside traditional or more rigid lines of inquiry and this made all the difference.
Why Groups
During her early training as a then “traditional therapist” in social work school, Amanda was introduced to 12 step programs while working on an addictions unit. She witnessed dramatic changes in people through 12 step recovery and this made a huge impact on her. She saw the power of the group first hand. She also observed that many in recovery still struggled with emotional pain causing relationship, career or quality of life issues. She sensed her clients dealt with a well of pain that needed to be released and this, she believed, would come through revisiting and correcting the story of what happened and face it experientially, not intellectually. As a result, her work began with facilitating experiential therapy groups in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This groundbreaking work offered the unique opportunity to emotionally grieve the losses suffered in childhood and finish the unfinished business with parents to finally free people from disconnection, deep cycles of pain and self-destructive behaviors. The results were phenomenal and word spread, especially throughout the 12 step recovery community and in1988 Amanda launched the immensely successful Center for Change through which her model evolved into childhood trauma groups and couples groups.
My work with Amanda Curtin
I was a participant in Amanda’s group for four years, from 2000 to 2004 after which I worked as an intern and then as a colleague with her until 2007. As a participant in Amanda’s group I continually witnessed her push out and away from the conventional and into a realm that required an incredible trust in her own intuition. More over, while observing the deepest wounds of childhood trauma surface through genograms (a three generational look at the family system) I would sometimes say to myself, “Well, we’re in over our heads here.” Time after time a breakthrough, a shift, a deeper love for the self and the ways of surviving the past would happen. Amanda would patiently work with the hurting inner child’s resistances, or admonish the abusive parent with real anger or have us get up, march out to her garage and beat on a heavy bag hanging out there, and admonish, rebuke and scold an abusive parent without escape. It was like nothing I had ever witnessed before. I experienced first hand real healing of the past, not behavior shifting but the alchemy of emotional release from grief, losses, hurt and suffering in myself and others. This had a tremendous impact on me; observing a brilliant intuitive person giving generous empathy for these newly known parts of us who were coming back to tell the real story of the past, a story from the expert who lived it. It was riveting. I became a therapist because of Amanda and because of the therapeutic model she so rigorously put to the test to evolve it to where it is today; a research-based therapy model tested out and scrutinized through 40 years of experience. To date, Amanda Curtin’s work is the only psychotherapeutic modality that addresses childhood trauma within the family-of-origin.
Relationship Recovery Process (RRP): New Seeds Take Shape and expand.
Throughout her career, Amanda has trained and collaborated with clinicians to develop her therapeutic model and share it with a wider community of clinicians and practitioners. In 2015, with a broader intention to share this model she and Patrick Teahan teamed up to design a shorter-term group, a structured six-month group. They developed a framework using the trauma therapy model developed by Amanda and expanded by Patrick. These groups are designed to help survivors of childhood abuse or neglect heal by reparenting their inner child and building intimacy skills. There is now a model that gives participants a deeper look at their own story with a real potential to heal in a shorter period of time with the option to enter a longer-term group based on the same theory and primary purpose; healing wounds of the past in order to break with our relational conditioning. Amanda has trained many practitioners throughout the US and other countries. I am grateful and proud to be part of this collaborative team of clinicians and practitioners lead by Amanda Curtin and Patrick Teahan.
RRP Research 2026
The Relationship Recovery Process is now an empirically tested modality. The first research paper on RRP will most likely be published in May of 2026. Current research being done points to significant decreases in self reported trauma symptoms by participants who completed the six-month group. On a PCL-5, symptoms were reduced from 72% of participants scoring 43 (out of 80) that was reduced to 31 by the end of the group. That’s a significant outcome.
