Tammie: What kind of training is required of the members of your action trauma teams?

Kate: That varies on what role you take on the team. To build a local TSM team takes about three years to train a team leader to use the Therapeutic SPiral Model to treat PTSD. TSI has a three year post-graduate accreditation program that builds teams and provides quarterly training to professionals.

However, many survivors train to be a trained auxilary ego on a team so they can give back to others. If a survivor doesn't have clinical or psychodrama training, it can take about a year to learn enough trauma theory and to get enough practice on a team to be a qualified team member.

Tammie: Your work is incredibly intense and demanding, is there any kind of system in place to prevent team members from suffering from secondary posttraumatic stress disorder?

Kate: This has always been a major consideration with our Action Trauma Teams. As you may have noticed, we had team meetings in the morning, at lunch and in the evening while we were doing the Healing SPiritual Trauma workshop.

During those meetings, team members shared their own responses, feelings, and re-activations of trauma material. They identified and worked through any trauma patterns that started to show up. Together, we processed, we cried, we talked, and we hugged. We stayed clear so we could provide a safe container for the participants. kind of like the good enough parent.

Tammie: I understand that you've been using this model with trauma survivors all over the world, and that you established Therapeutic Spiral International in 2000. What is the mission of this organization?

Kate: TSI's mission is to provide education, training, and direct services to trauma survivors in the global community using the Therapeutic Spiral Model.

Currently, we have ongoing training groups in Ottawa, Canada, Charlottesville, Virginia, Boulder, Colorado, and London, England. We are building teams in the community in Johannesburg, South Africa and Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland. You can view our website at therapeuticspiral.org for our schedule.

Tammie: "I'm reading your book, "Experiential Treatment for PTSD: The Therapeutic Spiral Model" and I'm finding it extraordinarily helpful. I'm struck by how you've managed to write about very complicated issues in such clear and understandable language. I want to let you know how much I'm appreciating that!

Kate: Thank you Tammie. It took ten years and three total rewrites to make the book user friendly. I want it to show people how experiential methods like the Therapeutic Spiral Model can truly make a difference in the lives of trauma survivors. As a woman with my own history of trauma, I believe people can recover fully from PTSD, not just learn to manage the symptoms.

Tammie: After having both witnessed and experienced the opportunity for healing that TSM offers, I'm convinced that this work most definitely makes a difference in the lives of those trauma survivors who have been fortunate enough to have participated in this process. I want to thank you Kate for making this opportunity for healing possible, and for taking the time to do this interview with me.

Kate: Thanks for giving me this opportunity to tell people about this hopeful method.

next: On Humor and Healing: An interview with Jo Lee Dibert-Fitko