TSI News Update - March 2016

March 2016

News Update

Kate and I would like to welcome you to our 2 ^nd News Update. We've had good feedback from our first one in late November 2015 and much has happened since, as TSI continues to grow in breadth and depth. We now have an increasing number of certified Trainers and Team Leaders in the Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM), who teach and conduct workshops all over the world. Many have developed TSM Action Healing Teams, which are crucial to provide safety when working in groups dealing with trauma.

Additionally, clients who wish to have an intensive day or weekend dedicated to their specific issues have requested a Team to work with them. For more information about our Trainers and Team Leaders and on becoming a TSM Trainer and Team member, please check our website: www.drkatehudgins.com.

In this News Update we continue our format of interviewing a TSM Trainer. Last time we had the privilege to interview Ben Rivers, a brilliant international trainer working in Egypt, the Mideast and India. If you missed that interview or would like to read again what Ben is doing, including photos of the serenely beautiful Darshur Centre, please click here: Ben Rivers Interview.

In this edition, we're excited to introduce you to Linda Ciotola, an exceptional and gifted US Trainer based in Maryland. She is an inspiration to us all and I, personally, am highly impressed with her accomplishments--and her heart-centeredness. Linda is a beautiful woman and I'm sure you'll want to read more about her life and her work in the Interview below.

We also continue the feature "Dr Kate's Musings" -- her thoughts and feelings about a variety of subjects. Here she expounds on the theme of transgenerational trauma and the healing gifts of spontaneity and surplus reality. Kate has just finished a wonderful journey to the West Coast where she worked with Armand Volkas on these very issues and also with TSM Trainer Sylvia Israel . She also conducted a well-received workshop at California Institute of Integral Studies ( CIIS ) in San Francisco. So, she comes home to us in Virginia well-nourished and feeling fulfilled.

Once again, Kate and I are happy that you've joined us. We hope to keep the conversation going, so if you have any comments and questions, please contact Kate at [email protected] . And please check out Kate's schedule of workshops for the coming year (see below).

Wishing you a bright and pleasant Spring or Fall,

Francesca Toscani

Linda Ciotola

Trainer Interview

When reading about Linda's work on her website (www.healing-bridges.com) , one is struck by the brea dth and d epth of her experiences. So, it is with respect and appreciation that TSI brings Lind a and her work to you through this interview.

Briefly, Linda is a psychodrama TEP and TSM Trainer; a Reiki Master; a Certified Health Education Specialist; a Gold Certified Personal Trainer, and an ACE Certified Fitness Instructor and Health Coach, MindBody Specialist, with additional certifications in Yoga, indoor cycling, and Zumba. She is the 2008 Recipient of the ASGPP Zerka Moreno Award and in 2014 received The Gratitude Award from MAC/ASGPP (Mid-Atlantic Chapter).

With even this short bio, we can clearly understand how Linda is also honored by Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who Registry of Business Leaders.

We hope the following interview, with some of her personal photos, gives you a deeper understanding of who Linda is, what she is currently doing, and the gifts she brings to us all.

TSI Interview with Linda

2016 Workshops

We have a full selection of stimulating and inspiring workshops planned for the coming seasons -- in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, China, even Bali. Please consider joining us for both training and personal growth.

Cli ck button below for information from the flyers or visit our website to view a full calendar of events.

2016 Workshop Preview

Dr Kate's Theoretical Musings

Hello, dear friends.

As you'll notice in our workshop flyers, we're definitely concentrating on transgenerational, multi-racial and cultural aspects of trauma this year. When I think about why I chose this theme for the year, it seems clear that it has to do with spontaneity and creativity -- themes that I talked about in our first newsletter last November. I find it important to remind myself as well as others that, no matter the issue the protagonist or group deals with, the aim of psychodrama is to help people reach a state of spontaneity so they can create, and co-create, their lives.

Going back to when I first 'found' psychodrama at the original Beacon Asylum, it was this concept of humans as creative beings who have the right and the ability to co-create their lives with others that drew me to psychodrama. It is still one of the major draws along with the concept of Surplus Reality.

Surplus reality is a psychodrama term that, when translated into everyday language, means the organizing and experiencing of a reality that exists in our subjective awareness at any moment in time. Each person, of course, has their own surplus reality of thoughts, feelings, instincts and values, all the while interacting with others who have their sets of surplus realities. Just writing this I see an entire universe of 'chemical' reactions with atoms bouncing off one another. The experience can be quite chaotic, or quite exciting, with all those possibilities for growth and change...

Please click below to read more about spontaneity, surplus reality and an easy and stimulating psychodrama technique for connecting across generational and racial or cultural lines.

Click here for Musings

I hope you have enjoyed reading our TSI News Update for March 2016. Many of you have contributed your time, energy, ideas, skills, and deep compassion to make the Therapeutic Spiral Model what it is today -- 25 years after its co-creation in Charlottesville, VA and Black Earth, WI.
Thank you.

I also hope you are inspired to connect with one of TSM's Trainers or Team Leaders and look forward to seeing you personally at a workshop or conference in the coming seasons (perhaps at the ASGPP Conference in Phoenix in April -- please stop by to say 'hello'). If you have comments, questions, or thoughts you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you at any time and sincerely appreciate your interest.