During this Level 1 TSI course, we present the overall template or protocol for conducting TSM psychodrama and all experiential therapy methods safely, regardless of the problem a trauma survivor presents.  The Trauma Survivor’s Internal Role Atom (TSIRA) in presented in its fullness. It teaches how TSM’s internal roles, especially the prescriptive roles of the TSIRA, can be adapted to help with residual trauma through containment and accurate labeling. Participants learn to balance thinking and feeling so that old, unprocessed memories can be held safely in the present, and reexamined from the here-and-now perspective to find new solutions for old repetitive trauma patterns.

This workshop also teaches a core TSM action intervention called the Containing Double (CD) (Toscani & Hudgins, 1993), which helps clients with trauma balance the thinking and feeling parts of their brain. This enables them to stay in the present and make new, spontaneous and creative actions. Demonstration and supervised practice of the CD shows how to make the container bigger, as well as smaller, for obsessive thoughts, defenses, and deep feelings. The CD becomes a bridge from defenses to being present in the here-and-now and is the most used TSM intervention worldwide (Hudgins & Toscani, 2013).

Participants learn:

• What containment is and why it is needed with experiential methods of change.
• The 3 stages of TSM protocol from the clinically-based TSIRA: Prescriptive, Trauma-based, and Transformative Roles.
• The specific TSM clinical action intervention of the Containing Double (CD) to provide balance of thinking and feeling at all times.
• Safe expression of deep feelings of grief, rage, despair, and terror for developmental repair.
• Accurate labeling of thoughts and feelings to guide integrated action that changes old trauma patterns.

Date: 20 – 22 March 2020

Where: Zagreb, Croatia

What is TSM?

The Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM) is a form of clinically-modified psychodrama used for the safe and effective treatment of trauma. Since the inception of TSM in 1992, thousands of people around the world have benefited from its application. TSM addresses trauma resulting from physical/emotional abuse, childhood sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, ethnic conflict, torture and other forms of political violence. TSM is based on the premise that survivors of trauma need to be adequately resourced with a set of roles that can be internalized for greater awareness, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Only when this is accomplished can survivors fully explore, understand, and release themselves from the debilitating impact of traumatic events. read more ->

This is an acknowledged and research-supported method of using clinically modified psychodrama and experiential psychotherapy to treat trauma with individuals, groups, and communities who present with symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, or depression.  It has also been applied to addictions and eating disorders, as well as to uses in education, theater, community building, business, and law. 

TSI offers a comprehensive training program in TSM psychodrama to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its aftermath that when completed fulfill the TSI requirements for International Certification in Trauma Therapy.  This training is for mental health care professionals, educators, community organizers, business persons, lawyers, or volunteers who wish to learn or improve their skills in working with people who are highly stressed or suffer from PTSD.

Spontaneity and creativity are the curative agents of change when using psychodramatic methods and TSM to treat trauma (Hudgins & Toscani, 2013). Spontaneity, from a psychodrama view, is the ability to change a repetitive behavioral reaction to an old situation or adapt an appropriate behavior to a new situation. Using this definition of spontaneity, then, means that different interventions are therapeutically indicated with different clients and symptoms. This emphasis on spontaneity and creativity as the change agent is an ideal antidote for trauma survivors who are often depleted physically and emotionally and constricted in their behavioral repertoire. Thus, TSM guarantees resilience and prevents retraumatization with experiential methods.

Because of the use of demonstrations, supervised technique practice, and full TSM Psychodramas, skills are developed quickly and effectively. In addition, all participants have the opportunity to focus on their personal issues and to assist with others’ healing.  Often people start with attendance at a personal growth workshop for professionals to experience TSM for themselves and to meet the requirement for a personal experience in addition to the training requirements.

All courses will have handouts and supplemental readings. Since this is an experiential method, the majority of the learning is in action with demonstrations, live supervision, protagonist-centered psychodramas, sociodrama, and Playback Theatre. 

dr. Kate Hudgins

Kate Hudgins, Ph.D., TEP, is an inspirational leader and a stellar trainer known worldwide for her innovative model of safe and effective trauma treatment.

Recognized as an international expert and author on trauma, Kate brings rigorous clinical training in psychology, psychodrama, and experiential psychotherapy as well as cross-cultural and indigenous learning and her own life experience.

Along with Francesca Toscani, M.Ed., TEP, Dr. Kate has developed, refined, and taught the Therapeutic Spiral Model, the healing method for survivors of trauma, in 35 countries and counting. She has been an experiential psychotherapist and trainer for more than 40 years, bringing spontaneity, creativity and healing to people who have experienced trauma in many settings. 

Dr. Kate is well known for her work in Asia for the past 17 years where she has successful trained the staff of the first mental health center at Hua Qiao University in Xiamen, China and built several Action Healing Teams in Taiwan.  She has brought TSM to 35 countries and is scheduled to teach in Europe next year in Norway, Sweden, and Spain. She maintains a West Coast Training group in San Francisco and an East Coast Training group in Philadelphia in the USA, while still maintaining a busy international schedule.  Due to the expansion of TSM, 100’s of people have become