Trauma, van der Kolk and psychodrama

[HV Psychodrama]

Dear Kate,
I would encourage you to involve Judy Swallow as she knows him, not well, but he might recognize her name. 

Unfortunately there are still people putting trauma survivors back into the trauma scene in the role of the victim. This does a disservice to our method, but it is the way those of us who trained in the 70s and early 80's (and probably before) were taught to work.

Most of us have come a long way since then. We need to help him understand that psychodrama can be a method of containment and support just as much as it can be a method of abreaction. 

Rebecca Walters




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dr Kate Hudgins 
  To: Edward Schreiber 
  Cc: ASGPP grouptalknew 
  Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 1:52 PM
  Subject: Re: Trauma, van der Kolk and psychodrama


  Yes I know why he says this.  He was the keynote speaker at ASGPP in 1996 and had a very bad experience there seeing uncontained abreactive psychodramas done again and again at the conference.  I had lunch with him at the conference and told him about the Containing double and TSM.  He told me it sounded good and could set psychodrama" back on the right path" but that I needed to do research on it.  We have had several letters of correspondence over the past 13 years but they have been few and far in between. 


   I have since done several research studies that show it does contain the uncontrolled nature of abreactive trauma as it also DEFINES spontaneity..  there is now a 3 year study in Taiwan by Dr Lai Nien Hwa supported by government funding showing that a program using TSM and art therapy worked with woman and children effected by domestic violence who have PTSD works.  It is being published in a the the Journel of Counseling in Chinese and in my new book Stories at the Frontlines:  Clinical and Community Actions in the Global Community using The Therapeutic Spiral Model (In Press)


  I am willing to try and talk to Bessel but I am not willing to do it alone.  Iwould do it as a representative of the ASGPP, as a representative of the psychodrama community.  He at least knows who I am and knows my name.  But I am very busy right now, writing a TSM Basic training manual with Nien Hwa Lai and two other colleagues in Chinese for taiwan, a chapter for using tSM cross culturally, as well as trying to re-establish a USA training group and working with Colleen Baratka to continue our quarterly eating disorders group that goes between Charlottesville and Philadelphia.  


  As many of you know I have not been part of the American psychodrama community for 10 years while I concentrated my work in Asia.  I have pulled back from working in China due to many bad experiences there but am expanding work in Japan and solidifying work in Taiwan as I also return to the UK and continue work in Canada as I rebuid my work in America.  So, if I am to approach Bessel, I want support to do it.  I do have research to show him of the Containing double in individual therapy, at the commmunity level, and this work of Dr Lai's in a year long therapy group.  As you know I won the Scholar's award this year.  So I think I can begin a dialogue with him.


  Who will support me?


  Kate
  On Nov 8, 2009, at 8:01 PM, Edward Schreiber wrote:


    Dear Colleagues,
    I had dinner tonight with a psychologist out here in Western Mass.  She is in private practice, but worked in a clinic serving traumatized kids
    and families for many years.  In any case, she was concerned about a conference she recently attended in the Hartford, CT area, in which
    Dr. Van der Kolk as the keynote speaker.  Interestingly enough, he mentioned yoga and "theater" as helpful in the resolution of trauma.  This
    colleague has known of our method for some time so she raised in front of 300 people the question to him, about the work of J.L. Moreno and
    psychodrama.  This conference was a few months ago.  Dr. Van der Kolk resolutely announced psychodrama as counter-indicated for the
    treatment of trauma, suggesting abreactive nature of the method, as he experienced it some time ago, makes the situation worse for traumatized
    patients.


    Does anyone know how to reach him, what we might do to address this with him?  Does anyone have a connection with him and why might he
    be saying this - around the country - about psychodrama?


    Ed


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  Kate Hudgins, Ph.D., TEP


  Clinical Psychologist
  Director of Training
  Therapeutic Spiral International, LLC
  ww.therapeuticspiral.org
  drkatetsi at mac.com








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