Psychodrama News and Announcements from Therapeutic Spiral International

Psychodrama News

Read about our experiences from ASGPP and other travels!

Also find other important information about upcoming events.

Straight from Dr. Kate

Hello TSM International Community

Presenting at the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP) conference with Scott Giacomucci and Steven Durost brought me back to the world of certified psychodramatists! I got my annual renewal of spontaneity, creativity, connection, and pure joy! I hope you all will join me next year when Mario Cossa and I offer a TSM Cultural Exchange workshop the weekend before ASGPP in 2019!

I want to congratulate Scott Giacomucci, LCSW, CET III, CP who passed his Certification as a national Psychodramatist and a TSM Team Leader in our International Certification in Trauma Therapy. Of course, he is already moving ahead to meet his requirements as a certified Trainer, Educator, and Practitioner, as well as completing his DSW! Congratulations also goes to Vlada Zapesostsky, who published her first book “Finding Your Way to Your True Home.” It is a masterpiece of TSM clinical theory shared though personal narrative, storytelling, and metaphor.

See our exciting web fliers for workshops in USA, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore for the rest of the year! This will make 42 countries TSM has been taught in. My bucket list is a minimum of 50 countries by the time I am 75...and that’s 10 years away!

We are starting a new training cohort in October! Contact me at [email protected] for more info!

Come join us to find post-traumatic growth following trauma for yourself and your clients!

With love and kindness, Kate

Congratulations to Scott Giacomucci, MSS, LCSW, CTTS, CET III, CP, PAT!

We welcome Scott into the international world of certified psychodramatists! He received his American certification in Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy early this year and is already building hours toward both his TSI Trainer certification and the American Board Certified trainers.

We are gifted to have Scott as one of the young leaders in the field that will help psychodrama reach its goal of “change for all of humankind”. He is a gifted artist, theorist, researcher n director! Glad he’s part of TSM around the world!

From Scott:

As a newly certified CP/PAT in psychodrama and Team Leader (TL) in TSM – my primary intention is to help carry this model to the next generation of clients, students, professionals, and psychodramatists. I hope to continue TSM’s influence in the field of experiential therapy/psychodrama of promoting a strengths-based, safety-oriented, and clinically sophisticated model – while also expanding TSM’s reach into the social work profession and academia.

This August (17 ^th -19 ^th ) the first ever TSI men’s workshop will take place in Media, PA facilitated by Scott Giacomucci and Steven Durost. This workshop will utilize TSM’s clinical map for safely working with trauma while adapting experiential process for men’s work. The workshop will help men examine emotional intelligence, the inner roles of a man, and explore how to be the best man that one can be. Through the workshop, men will be provided with a safe space to practice vulnerable connection with other men and to cultivate post-traumatic growth – opening to new possibilities with self, others, and the world.

A Note from Linda Ciotola M.Ed., TEP TSM Trainer

A year after launching ACTS (Alexander-Ciotola Training Services) on-line psychodrama education course, my colleague and ACTS producer, Nancy Alexander, LCSWC, TSM TAE and I are meeting monthly with our team: Tiffany Writson, our technical trouble-shooter and advisor, and our two TSM TAES: Will Halm and Connie Newton for on-going training and program development. Our on-line program teaches basics of both classical and TSM psychodrama and offers CEU's. The program includes a full length drama with OE, circle of safety and strengths, use of the Body Double role, and other TSM features http://ac.ts.com/

I am very much looking forward to co-leading the TSM Neurobiology/Body Double workshop in October with Steven Durost, PhD, LCMHC, REAT, IEATA, and our action healing team in Brandywine, Pa. (see flier on my website at: www.healing-bridges.com ) Putting the brain into action and showing how various TSM TSIRA roles help contain, heal, and transform the trauma based roles is always a profoundly moving experience for me. And of course I love seeing participants practice, learn, and experience the power of the Body Double role!

Other News

East Meets West: From Bali to Dallas

By Mario Cossa, RDT/MT, TEP, TSI Trainer

The recent ASGPP conference was the first I’ve attended since living (mostly) full time in Bali, Indonesia. It was wonderful connecting with my psychodramatic family, especially Dr. Kate and the TSI gang. It was also a rich experience to re-connect and/or connect anew with psychodramatists from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Spending time with Asian colleagues helped ease the culture shock of being in Dallas.

There is something quite amazing about living, working, and teaching in Asia. Elements of the culture join in the dance with spontaneity and creativity to give new eyes to old practices, and to create new conserves. With the stimulation of our collective Asian (and other international) experience, Kate and I have decided to offer a workshop on the weekend before the 2019 conference in Manchester, NH.

Having lived in NH for over 30 years and having been trained as and developed my identity as a psychodramatist while living there, it is a truly special event for me. Kate and I look forward to welcoming our students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia and other points around the globe to join with their American compatriots for an exploration of the incredible additions and enhancements to the Therapeutic Spiral Model that have developed from our international work.

So, save the dates, Friday evening, April 26 through Sunday, April 28, 2019 for an incredible workshop experience. ( And we are offering an optional day of supervision and directing practice on Monday the 29 ^th . ) See additional information and registration details here.

Image: D ressed up for dancing! Mario with Gina Moreno, Karen Drucker, and Steven Durost.

An Excerpt from:

Why We Move Away

from Our Inner Home,

Why We Disconnect

from Our True Self

By: Vlada Zapesotsky, MA, PAT

Over the past years, I have researched and developed a healing concept and action model called The Way Home to Your True Self , which is a practice of returning to one's inner beginning, one's true nature and whole self. This concept of ‘return’ does not mean that the person is going backwards to where he or she had started life. Rather, it is a journey of discovery in which he or she is able recognize this inner space of the natural and true self, to enrich it, and to start building a unique, flexible and safe inner container that is appropriate in the here-and-now. I named this space “The Inner Home” because this metaphor describes in detail all the components of our inner space, reflecting the personality, belief system, imagination, actions, and creative sparks. This inner space might be called a person’s Soul and is built from true and tested strengths, abilities, and resources. The main component of such an Inner Home is the feeling of being our own person, or our Self, in which safety, containment, truthfulness, spontaneity, and free expression are states that we experience naturally in our own home-space.

In my work, I discovered various techniques based on Classical Psychodrama, as well as TSM, that help clients realize how far they are from their own Inner Home, what blocks their path, and how they can remove the obstacles on this road home. The tools I developed help the client understand how to get on the path, own it, and live it. Just these first steps prove to be healing, giving a sense of mindfulness, joy, and tranquility.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Below are the events that Therapeutic Spiral is either hosting, or will be a participating in as a guest. More information is in the links in the titles .