DAILY PROGRESS
Charlottesville, Virginia
6/24/01

Psychologist gets inside the mind of Africa



By EMILY ROPER
Daily Progress staff writer

Americans are bombarded every day with news of horrific events in countries plagued by violence, poverty and disease, but hear little about the psychological damage experienced by the victims.
But help is on the way, as a group of mental health professionals embarked last week on their first trip to South Africa to teach other health care providers how to handle cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, which sometimes occurs after witnessing or being involved in horrific events.
The team of four, led by local clinical psychologist and trainer Kate Hudgins, is traveling on behalf of Therapeutic Spiral International. The nonprofit organization, based in Charlottesville, uses an innovative form of group therapy involving expressive arts such as mask-making, music and drawing.
Hudgins, founder of Therapeutic Spiral International, will be traveling with Colette Harrison, a counselor and trauma specialist from Yonkers, N.Y, who has worked with the program since its inception. Enid MacNeil, an adolescent psychologist, and social worker Chip Chimera, both from England, also will take part in the educational trip.
While Therapeutic Spiral International has sent teaching groups to countries including Australia and England, this is the first time they will travel to South Africa, a country suffering from racial strife, poverty and the AIDS epidemic.
The group will work in Ivory Park Township in Johannesburg, where poverty is rampant. According to Hudgins, many people there live in shacks made of waste products. They have no electricity or running water.
Hudgins said she expects to find many different situations that have caused post-traumatic stress disorder, from random violence to knowing a loved one dying of AIDS. Racial tension is another issue the group may encounter on its trip.
"Even though apartheid is dead, there is still a lot of animosity between the races" that can contribute to the development of the disorder, Harrison said.
The team will spend 10 days in South Africa training other health care professionals in the Therapeutic Spiral International therapy model.
'We're not just coming in as Americans expecting to show our wares," Hudgins said. 'We want to build trauma teams and train mental health professionals."
Therapeutic Spiral International's technique involves a two-day group therapy session in which post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers act out the memories of the situation that troubles them.
Victims suffer from "an alternating cycle of numbness Amid flashbacks," Hudgins said. "It can be quite disruptive to life."
During the first day's session, counselors spend time helping Victims build up their emotional strength through the use of expressive arts.
According to Hudgins, by building emotional strength first, victims have an easier time re-enacting the situation that triggered their disorder.
Patients finally re-enact their experiences on the second day, giving the actual events a twist to help them deal with their emotional pain, while members of the trauma team play the parts of the aggressors.
"Instead of ending the scene with helplessness, we help them change the ending," Hudgins said. "When it is replayed, they might fight off the attacker for instance."
According to Hudgins, reports from clients have given the program an 89 percent success rate, while research has proven that participants show decreased feelings of disassociation.
"It's a more holistic approach," Harrison said. "It gives a better, more positive foundation for future change."
One out of 10 people who experience trauma will develop posttraumatic stress disorder, Hudgins said.
"It's a very common problem that has been undertreated," she said.
But Therapeutic Spiral International is helping bring attention to the disorder, which is seen all over the world.
Therapeutic Spiral International "has continued to evolve and develop as we begin to look at new issues," Harrison said.