VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF PSYCHODRAMA.
messages from worldwide psychodramatists
Kate Hudgins
Dear fellow psychodramatists,
You have asked me do my self-presentation via our IAGP internet forum and I
am glad to do so in preparation for the 2000 conference. I attended the IAGP
in London last year, which was my first time at the IAGP. It was a very
stimulating and intellectually challenging conference, although plagued by
the financial woes, and I look forward to joining in this level of
professional and personal exchange in Jerusalem, a city I have long wanted to
visit.
I am a clinical psychologist and American cerified TEP and have ended up
specializing in psychodrama with trauma survivors. At present, the clinical
practice I do is limited to weekend workshops called Surviving Spirits and
Conscious Transformation that I do in different places with different
training teams.
Mostly, I work out of my home in Charlottesvillle, VA (where Zerka is moving,
lucky me!) schedule trainings and do writing about The Therapeutic Spiral
Model(TM). This is a clinical model of psychodrama to work with trauma
survivors and direct as a clinician in order to prevent uncontrolled
regression and retraumatization. Over the past almost 20 years, have
developed this ever evolving model in connection with many of the people who
have shared their stories and/or their training with me here in the states,
as well as in OZ, NZ, the UK, and most recently Korea.
I love to travel and would gladly live my life in an airplane I think...as
long as it is a business class free upgrade....and so I take myself overseas
several times each year and offer training and personal growth workshops for
psychodramatists and other clinicians in the countries I go to.
Currently, Julia Howell and Francis Batten, members of IAGP, are coordinating
the Therapeutic Spiral work in the UK and there is a trained trauma team in
Brisbane, OZ under the guidance of Charmaine McVea, an ANZPA certified
psychodramatist and psychologist. So, there are good people sharing the
trauma work with me, which is good, cause it can be a lonely business.
One of the best things that came out of last year's IAGP conference for me,
was Peter Felix saying to me....well, you should edit a book on psychodrama
and trauma since my own book on The Therapeutic Spiral has been stuck....and
me saying, OK. Well, as I went home, I thought, this is going to be alot of
work. I am the editor of the ASGPP Psychodrama Network News and have done my
own Center for Experiential Learning newsletter for 10 years, plus had a
number of articles published over the years...so I KNEW what alot of work a
project like a book on Psychodrama with Trauma would be.
So I emailed Peter Felix back, and here we are a year later, with 12-14 very
good submissions of manuscripts from all around the world, with Jessica
Kingsley as publisher, hopefully in time for the 2000 IAGP conference.
This I am enjoying. The writing, the connecting with the other
authors, and the making a contribution to psychodrama in this way.
Like Monica Zuretti said in her last email...psychodrama to me has always
been about creating a dream...mine, the client's healing, the student's
learning....and I have found that the path of psychodrama has brought me as
close to my dreams professionally as I could imagine. I feel productive and
a good contributor to the field, and yet have time to work in my garden at
home and have neighbors over for dinner. And I thank psychodrama for much of
that, for teaching me at the core always to believe and trust in spontaneity
and creativity will emerge.
I trained at St. Elizabeth's in 1981 and with many other trainers in between
but of course Zerka stands out. I am so blessed she is moving here to
Charlottesville and plan a "Moving Celebration" for her in tandem with
Jeannie Burger for November 7th if any of you world travellers are in this
part of the world. We want to help her feel as welcome here as she was in
Beacon.
I look forward to meeting with you all on email and in person in Jerusalem.
Thanks.
Kate Hudgins