Harvard Researcher Bessel van der Kolk States Experiential, Body-based therapy is THE treatment of Choice of trauma survivors. TSM is a clinical system of experiential methods and here you can see what it can do!

This most recent issue of the Psychotherapy Networker has an article by Bessel van der Kolk titled "The Limits of Talk Therapy" where he says experiential methods are the ONLY treatment that works with trauma survivors. It is a well written article and one you can share with colleagues who ask about the Therapeutic Spiral Model and treatment effectiveness with experiential methods. Download, read and keep it in your files. It shows we are on the cutting edge of neurobiology with the work we are doing. Very exciting."
http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/jf04_wylie.htm

TSI Begins Long Term Research on the Effectiveness of the
Therapeutic Spiral Model

We are starting a 3 year, cross-cultural, cross language research project to test the effectiveness of TSM for training and personal growth in the 7 countries we are currently working in. Stage 1 will happen this summer when we will be using several psychometric tools to measure decreases in dissociation, depression and anxiety following personal growth groups. We will also be doing a pre and post skills assessment for the training workshops. In both cases, we will be conducting post-drama protagonist and director interviews to determine signficant moments of change in TSM dramas using Charmaine McVea's research tools to do so.

Stage 2 will begin in the fall and will find over 21 therapists testing the Body Double and the Containing Double with people with PTSD in clinical and educational settings. See the research study by Hudgins, Drucker and Metcalf (1999) for the results from the single case, repeated measures design study that Dr Drucker conducted showing that three sessions of the Containing Double significantly decreases dissociation and general trauma symptoms. MIKE_-put link her to the article.

Stage 3 begins in 2005 testing the effectiveness of our Community training program, Action Against Trauma. Previous evaluation in 2002 demonstrated that 8 days of training and self-care using TSM and the humanities helped people who work with trauma survivors signficantly decrease their own symptoms of anxiety, depression, and secondary trauma. We will be evaluating a two week AAT program in South Africa followed by testing in Taiwan.

New Study, soon to be published showing TSM's success!

McVea, Charmaine. (In Progress). "Resolving Painful Emotional Experience During Psychodrama,"being carried out through the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Neurobiology Research Articles

Parents' brains tuned to babies' tears Helen R. Pilcher Dec 2003
Brain Has Biological Mechanism to Block Unwanted Memories Stanford Univ Jan 2004
The Limits of Talk by Mary Sykes Wylle

Research Links

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/ At the Institute for the Psychological Study of the Arts (IPSA at U.Florida at Gainesville, ), Norm Holland (its founder) has been doing a Seminar on "The Brain and The Book" ... notes at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/nnh/seminar/memo-s02.htm ... addressing questions like "How does culture get inscribed in a child's growing brain? In general, how does the new knowledge about the brain bear on our understanding of literature and the literary processes of creation and response?"

Research on TSM

Two recent studies have demonstrated that the Containing Double, an operationalized intervention module in the Therapeutic Spiral Model, decreases dissociation and general trauma symptoms during three sessions of individual psychotherapy with an adult client diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Hudgins, M.K., Drucker, K., & Metcalf, K. (2000). The containing double: A clinically effective psychodrama intervention for PTSD. The British Journal of Psychodrama and Sociodrama, 15(1), 58-77.

Hudgins, M.K. & Drucker, K. (1998). The containing double as part of the Therapeutic Spiral Model for treating trauma survivors. The International Journal of Action Methods, 51(2), 63-74.

Single Case Studies

Karen Drucker, Psy.D., conducted a single case study testing the effectiveness of the Containing Double intervention module with a client diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The results, published in 2000 in the British Journal of Psychodrama, demonstrated significant decreases in dissociation using the Dissociation Experiences Scale and general trauma symptoms on the Trauma Symptom Inventory.

This study may be viewed in full from the Articles section as well as the operationalized manual for the Containing Double in individual psychotherapy.

This single case study has been informally replicated by other TSI clinicians in a number of individual and group therapy settings. Several team members are documenting individual cases for publication.

Workshop Evaluations

Since 2000, workshop leaders have distributed a self-report evaluation with a 10-point Likert scale of satisfaction. Simple cumulative score ranges from a low of 8.5 to a high of 10.0 for all participants across time in personal growth and training workshops. Likert scale ratings on changes average 9.1 on a 10-point scale.

Individual reports state profound and significant change, often after a single Therapeutic Spiral International weekend. When people participate in a series of personal growth or training workshops, they report the benefits grow exponentially.

In addition, client surveys show an 87% satisfaction rate after an experiential weekend workshop.

Therapist Interviews

Therapist interviews conducted with clients one to two weeks after they had completed a three-day workshop consistently document positive changes in functioning and a decrease in trauma symptoms.

Research in Progress

The Body Double, another intervention module of the Therapeutic Spiral Model, is being operationalized and tested in three-session study by three separate psychotherapists in the United States and England.

A three-day "Surviving Spirits: Healing Sexual Trauma for Professionals" workshop led by Kate Hudgins and Mimi Cox in Brisbane, Australia, was videotaped in March 2003 for a change-process study by Charmaine McVea, an Australian psychodramatist. Her study employs the assessment measures developed by Les Greenberg, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is director of the York University Psychotherapy Research Clinic and one of the leading authorities on working with emotions in psychotherapy; he has extensively researched and written about experiential therapies.

Action Against Trauma

While the data from this community-based program has not been fully analyzed, initial results report satisfaction at 9.3 on a Likert scale of 10.0. A final report is due in May 2003 with reports on resiliency in community workers and usefulness of the Therapeutic Spiral Model applications in community practice.

Audience Ratings of Self-Care for Nurses

Audience ratings of the training program "Neurobiology, Creativity and Self-Care for Nurses" from the annual meeting of Nephrology Nurses at the Medical College of Virginia, conducted by Kate Hudgins, Ph.D., TEP, and Cathy Wilson, M.Ed., CP.

To read the full text of this report, download the following word document:
Evaluation Results 10-9-03

LINKS >>