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Team photo for personal growth workshop in Qingdao, China, PRC. Ruby Shi (2nd from left) is the first certified Assistant Leader in China!

April 2007

Kiyoshi Takara from Japan and Michael Wieser from Austria come to visit Zerka.

September 2006

Look to see what fun we have at TSM training! These photos are taken from the Director's Practice and Leadership Training Group in Taipei, Taiwan, August, 2006. Love those director's wands!

Dr Kate Hudgins, clinical psychologist, TEP and soon to be a registered drama therapist continues to bring her work, The Therapeutic SPiral MOdel (Put the trademark sign in) to Asia. She recently presented a pre-conference workshop and plenary talk on using TSM across cultures to treat PTSD at the 19th World Congress on Psychotherapy in Kuala Lumpar Malaysia. Drawing on the latest research in neurobiology, she reminded people that human-made violence and natural catastrophes affect all human brains the same, no matter what culture they come from. Symptoms of PTSD which include sensory flashbacks to the situation, body memories and extreme emotions may be INTERPRETED differently in different cultures--one culture seems them as spirit possession, another as madness, a third as medical illness of PTSD--but, in fact all brains respond the same to overwhelming stress. It is just the interpretation that is different. She will offering her first TSM workshop in Malaysia next summer 2007.

Her work in mainland China is also expanding. She is now working with an organization ChinaTA.org to sponsor her TSM workshops there, allowing her to do 20 day courses where people can receive certificates from Capitol Normal University in Beijing at three levels of training. long with Mimi Cox, LCSW, PAT, Dr Kate brings her work on using experiential therapy to treat PTSD to universities, EAP programs, and other mental health settings in China. She was originally invited there in 2003 as part of a goverment mandate from the Department of Education to help promote psychological health and decrease the suicide rate among college students. As universities have opened their enrollment, many college students are no longer
able to automoatically find jobs in government or the foreign sector, increasing stress and mental health problems. She and Mimi will continue their work this year and hope to establish a 6-9 month training program through the university to begin September 2007.

In Taiwan, Dr Kate is completing the first 3-year training program in TSM with a group of psychologists sponsored by the Chinese Guidance and Counseling Association. This has been a very exciting group due to the high level of clinical training the students came into the course with and the many avenues they have for implementing what they learn about experiential therapy in their public and private practices. She and Mimi will be continuing to offer a Leadership Development and Director's Practice Group in Taipei. Most importantly, they are close to the end of training their first fully speaking Chinese team with the addition of Dr Lai Nien-Hwa and Dr Cho Wen Chun as Team Leaders by early 2007.

Dr Kate and Mimi conduct the Body Double workshop in Taipei, April 2006

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Dr Kate goes to the 9th Ward in New Orleans! Kate joined Larry Goldstein, writer, director, producer, actor and drama teacher in Charlottesville, VA in chaperoning a group of high school kids from Tandem Friends School who offered Playback Theatre to the residents and volunteers alike at Emergency Communities. EC serves over 1000 meals a day to people who are still sleeping in tents 7 months after Katrina. The Playback Troupe brought to life moments of joy and times of despair. Please see the diary I wrote of our experiences here.

March 26, 2006

Monday 9AM

The kids—Soffee, Helene, Suzannah, Hanna, Alia, Philip, and Joseph---were great last night. Singing on the plane, talking in various accents, energy bursting out of their young alive adolescent bodies and minds. Then a shift in one occurs and vulnerability shows. Soffee loses her sunglasses on the plane. Three of the girls get scared as they walk down the hall of our hotel and a guy sits with his door open and invites them in.

Larry Goldstein and I, taking the parental role, walk up and down the hall several times glaring at him, letting him know not to mess with “our girls”. I go to sleep to and awake to the sounds of young girls talking and giggling, reminding me of my own slumber parties in high school. Get entire diary.

October 2005

Spirit Begins

The journey has begun. Coming full circle, ten years later. With Spirit by my side.

September 16-18 Baltimore, MD
New Annual Tradition!
Self-Experience Master Session with Dr Kate: Dramatic Transformations

This new workshop provides an opportunity for people who have attended
previous TSM workshops to join Dr. Kate and a team of trained professionals
to experience TSM with its founder. No matter where you are in your
recovery from stress related illness, you can benefit from an experiential
TSM workshop honoring your progress in healing. Kate will help you mark
your transformation from a victim to a survivor to roles that are fully
alive and vital. Enjoy your spontaneity and creativity as you benefit from
the support of a TSM team to identify your autonomy, to increase your
ability for self-care, and to build contact with a sense of spirituality and
meaning in your life after trauma.

Sponsored by Patti Desert, LSCW-C. Contact her for intake and registration
at honeybwomn@aol.com

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I am going to Shanghai and Nanking to do TSM workshops with a training team of Taiwanese clinicians. Drs Cho Wen Chen and Lai Nien Hwa are joining me and Ning-Shung Kung to present an Introduction to TSM: Containment with Action Methods in Shanghai and a Surviving Spirits for Professionals in Nanking. This is the second meeting of an on-going TSM training group on the mainland organized by Professor Deng from Nanking University. Mimi Cox, LCSW, PAT will return in the Fall to continue the training, TSM Bodywork and Trauma with team members from Taiwan.

In Taiwan, we are teaching our Level 2, Advanced TSM Clinical Action Courses sponsored by the Chinese Guidance Association this year. Mimi Cox and myself will provide clinical training on Transference and Countertransference with Action Methods with Trauma (July 25-27) and Projective Identification in Experiential Groups of Trauma Survivors. By the end of the year, we will have our first fully accredited TSI trained team in Asia. Ning-Shing Kung will lead the team joined by Drs Cho and Lai as accredited Assistant Leaders and Ou Gye-Toung as an accredited TAE.

September 2004
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Taiwan Team and psychologists and social workers from Nantou County Social Services, Nantou, Taiwan. Thanks to Ou Gye-Tong for making it all possible!

Kate and Mimi at TSIRA workshop for the Taiwan Association of Clinical Psychologists, Tai-Chung, Taiwan

By Mario Cossa

Ever since I first met Vivyan Alers in 2001, when she attended a workshop on TSM with adolescents that Kamala and I had held in Keene, NH, I have been eager to visit and work with her in South Africa. At long last, after a relatively uneventful flight from London and the long lines at immigration and customs, I was greeted by Vivyan at the Johannesburg airport. The Alers’ family household (Viv, her husband Ian, and daughter Cindy) is Midrand, about half way between Jo’Burg and Pretoria. They have a beautiful house surrounded by fences and an automatic gate, in a housing development of similarly guarded homes and with a fence around the whole community. Such is life in Jo’Burg, with still a great divide between the haves and have nots and a good amount of violence and fear.

At the same time there is a wonderful feeling of hope for the future on the part of both blacks and whites that I have met. South Africa’s democratic constitution is only 10 years old and there is still a lot of pain left over from the days of apartheid, but people are really working to build “The Rainbow Nation.” There are 11 official languages spoken in South Africa and a rich cultural heritage that is diverse and appreciated by most people. The issues here are not so different from in New York City, but here they are more overt.

I spent the first week of my stay mostly getting ready for our first workshop and getting all the paperwork in order for participating in the TSI research project. Enid MacNeill flew in the night before the workshop and Chip Chimera arrived the morning it began. There were ten participants in our group with a team of four (Mario as TL, Vivyan as AL, and Enid and Chip as TAEs). There were several participants who had attended TSI workshops before and some who were new to the model. Four of the women with whom Vivyan had worked in the nearby township of Ivory Park were in attendance. One was an Occupational Therapist who works with Vivyan, and three were women from the township who had attended Kate’s first workshop and got involved in working with the groups later developed for the elderly, disabled, and for high risk youth. Other participants were professionals who had come to learn about the model. One had come because Vivyan had been hounding her for a long time and she finally gave in. All were women. Never mind, I am accustomed to being the only man in the room.

The workshop was both an introduction to the model as well as an examination of team roles and how they function together. We also included our little drama on how the brain deals with trauma. I had begun playing with this action demonstration of neurobiology with Kathy Amsden and her team in Maine, had continued with it in Sheffied, England, and now we had the South African version. If you haven’t seen it yet, it will be offered along with Kate’s newest Power Point at the British Psychodrama Association Congress in Oxford in early August. Come on over!

We had an incredible team and an equally incredible group and the workshop was a huge success. People who were new got really turned on by the model. Those who were somewhat experienced gained a more clear understanding of the theory and practice. We also did some powerful work in dramas of Restoration and Developmental Repair. One of the things that intrigued me was the way group members offered unexpressed strengths to the protagonist as well as picking up on unexpressed affect. I had never experienced this before and it was a beautiful way to provide support from the group.

On Sunday, the day of meaning making, transformation and integration, we pulled off the incredible feat of conducting ten vignettes of ten minutes’ duration each, back to back to back to (etc.) without pause. I certainly got lots of appreciation for directing all the dramas and I have to admit I was brilliant. I also recognize how the brilliance of the team allowed me, as director, to have my full spontaneity present. Even thought I was the front person, it was really a team effort with Vivyan as AL bringing me vital information and making production offers throughout and Chip and Enid moving smoothly in and out of roles while also monitoring the time for me. The ten vignettes were completed in 110 minutes!

The training was an incredible warm up for the following weekend, which was a personal growth/community applications workshop in the Township of Ivory Park. Two of the women that had been working with Vivyan would join us on the team to do Auxiliary Practicums, so our team would be six. This time, however, the men and women would be fairly equal as participants and Chip would also be doing her first TL (Shared) Practicum, so the structure would be a little different. We each had our own form of R & R (or oxytosin generation if we want to get neurobiologically technical) during the week. On Wednesday Viv took Chip, Enid and I to Pilanesburg Game Reserve on a special adventure. On Thursday the full team spent four hours together in preparation for the workshop.

The venue we were using was the Youth Centre in the Lord Kaniyle section of Ivory Park Township. Through the hard work of many local residents, headed up by a man named Mandla, the Centre had grown in size and prominence since it was last used for a TSM workshop several years ago. We were using a large auditorium room with an elevated stage at one end and plenty of space to have our art materials and art projects in progress left out on tables for easy access. Ivory Park itself is a township that has only come into existence during the time since the abolition of apartheid. The homes are small, and close together and the area is generally bustling with activity. During the winter they heat with coal and wood in open fires and early in the morning and again from early evening on the air is thick with smoke from the fires. It stands in stark contrast to Randjesfontein, the community about 20 minutes away, where we lived in comfort with Vivyan and her family.

Of the 12 participants in the workshop (nine of whom were able to be there for the full three days), all but two came from the township. Everyone spoke English to some extent, but it was the first language for only one participant and 5/6ths of the team. Having a team member who could interpret was essential to the success of this workshop as the value of cultural and language diversity is very important in South Africa. The entire workshop was an eye-opening experience for me and the participation was full and rich. Again, I was impressed by the way group members spontaneously brought needed strengths to the protagonist. I also learned a great deal about the importance of cultural protocol and relied heavily on information from group members conveyed through Vivyan to keep my directing on track.

Once again, the team was stellar. Chip and I developed a great balance of co-leadership and each team member was there 100%. A high point for me in this weekend was the directing of a drama with “cultural developmental repair.” The black, South African protagonist selected a white, Afrikaans woman to play his connection to his country. Various languages were employed throughout (the protagonist speaking 9 of the 11 official languages of the country) and the drama was resolved with the “birth” of the child of the next generation, the rainbow child, with whom the protagonist shared his vision for the South Africa of tomorrow, and to whom he taught words in many of the languages. As auxiliaries gave their roles back to the protagonist for integration they spoke in the language that was their first, including Afrikaans. It was truly a privilege to be part of this workshop. It certainly helped to connect me further with the international scope of the work we are doing in the Spiral.

I have a few days left here for wrapping up odds and ends of business and our part of the research project, and then head back to London and on to Oxford for the BPA. Chip and Enid and I will be joined by a staff member from the Medical Foundation and our South African team of Vivyan, Jacinda and Tabia for a day-long presentation on the TSM/TSI. We will, in turn, support our South African team on their “Rainbow Nation” presentation the next day. From winter to summer, from culture to culture, the work goes on.

Black, white, and brown hands together complete the thumb thing in our training workshop in Johannesburg on July 11, 2004. Note the South African custom of keeping both hands visible.

A drama of Restoration and Renewal, directed by Chip Chimera, at the Youth Centre in Ivory Park, July 17, 2004.

The TSI South Africa Team: Front row (l to r) Jacinda de Freitas and Mario Cossa
Back row (l to r) Vivyan Alers, Chip Chimera, Enid MacNeill, Tabia Mampane

The Oakwood Youth Centre Team – Sheffield, England – front row: Enid MacNeill, Local Organizer; back row Mario Cossa and Chip Chimera.
Absent from photo – Alyson Coupe.

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New Book Available

Dr. Kate Hudgins' new book "Experiential Treatment for PTSD" is now available from Springer Publishing Company. Visit our Books page for an excerpt and more information.

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