What is TSM?
The Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM) is a form of clinically-modified psychodrama used for
the safe and effective treatment of trauma. Since the inception of TSM in 1992, thousands of people around the world have
benefited from its application. TSM addresses trauma resulting from physical/emotional abuse, childhood sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, ethnic
conflict, torture
and other forms of political or structural violence. TSM is based on the premise that
survivors of trauma need to be adequately resourced with a set of roles that can be internalized for greater awareness,
resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Only when this is accomplished can survivors fully explore, understand, and release themselves from the debilitating
impact of traumatic events.
The Trauma Triangle
The Therapeutic Spiral Model's (TSM) Trauma Triangle is a configuration that clarifies
the destructive cycle of Victim, Perpetrator and Abandoning Authority. In addiction treatment, Karpman's Triangle is well-known with the interpersonal roles of Victim, Perpetrator and Rescuer. Through years of clinical
experience, we've redefined this triangle to represent the internalized experience of
the trauma survivor.
Using role theory, TSM's Trauma Triangle incorporates the trauma-based roles of Victim,
Perpetrator and Abandoning Authority, the last which is internalized when there is no rescuer available in the interpersonal world. The unique TSM role of the Abandoning Authority helps describe how trauma survivors learn to abandon themselves to
dissociation, self-harm, addictions, eating disorders and
lack of self-care.
The Trauma Triangle represents a closed circuit of energy embedded in the personality
structure of those who have survived cruelty or trauma, repeating itself as life-long patterns of abuse and neglect.
Through personal dramas, this workshop and training provides tools to transform the trauma-based roles, empowering transformation from self-neglect to
self-care and instilling healthy
problem-solving into daily life. The transformative role of Appropriate Authority is
taught as the antidote to the TSM Trauma Triangle using action demonstrations and psychodramas.
Educational Goal
Learn the Therapeutic Spiral Model's Trauma Triangle and how it can help trauma survivors understand their experience and utilize it for healing and post-traumatic growth.
Learning Objectives
After the workshop participants will be able to:
- Describe the TSM Trauma Triangle and its many uses in education, therapy, and organizations.
- Explain assessment methods in working with the TSM trauma-based roles of victim, perpetrator, and abandoning authority.
- Demonstrate ways to integrate TSM's prescriptive roles to enact and transform the trauma-based roles safely and without re-traumatization.
- Explain their personal pattern on the Trauma Triangle.
- Discuss the identified pattern and build the role of Appropriate Authority that can stop the repetitious internalized pattern of trauma.
- Describe how they will apply learning from this workshop in their professional setting(s).
Dates: February 6-7, 2021 and February 13-14, 2021
Hours: 4.5 hours Each day
Saturday 8:30 AM -1 PM PST (11:30 AM - 4 PM EST)
Sunday 8:30 AM - 1 PM PST (11:30 AM - 4 PM EST)
Where: Online via Zoom
Fee: $395 for IAGP Band A; $299 for IAGP Band B; $239 for IAGP Band C;
$129 for IAGP Band D. If you live outside the US or Canada,
Information on Continuing Education Credit for Health Professionals:
Contact Sylvia@imaginecenter.net
Course meets the qualifications for 18 continuing education hours for
LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the
California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Sylvia Israel, Provider # 019617, is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs,
LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEP. Sylvia Israel maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. Certificates will be distributed upon completion.
See http://www.bayareamorenoinstitute.com/ceu-provider for information about Accommodations and
Grievances. Additional fee applies.
Continuing Education for Licensed psychologists and Registered nurses: Contact Sylvia Israel
sylvia@imaginecneter.net to inquire about availability.
Drama Therapy & Psychodrama 18 Hours may also be applied for Drama Therapy (recognized by NADTA), & Psychodrama (Recognized by the American Board of
Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy)
Sylvia Israel, MFT (mfc #31245), TEP, RDT/BCT, Board Certified Trainer, Educator and Practitioner of Psychodrama and Registered Drama Therapist/Board
Certified Trainer, teaches at CA Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and Kansas State University. Sylvia is cofounder of Bay Area Moreno Institute, IMAGINE! Center for Creativity & Healing and
Bay Area Playback Theatre. She is also a Certified Trainer in the Therapeutic Spiral Model of working with trauma and a national (including Spirit Rock Meditation Center) and international
presenter. Sylvia enjoys supporting clients in awakening to their spontaneity and creativity and living more fully in the present moment. Her work blends verbal and somatic therapy with drama,
sandtray and other expressive arts. Sylvia maintains a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area working with individuals, couples, families and groups.
See: Israel, Sylvia. The Therapeutic Spiral Model: A Psychodramatic Whole Person Approach for Working with Trauma in Serlin, I., Kripner, S., &
Rockefeller, K. (Eds.). (2019) Integrated Care for the Traumatized: A Whole Person Approach. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Karen Drucker PSY.D., TEP Karen is a Licensed Psychologist in Boulder, Colorado; where she utilizes
psychodrama in her private practice and teaches graduate psychology students at Naropa University in the Mindfulness and Transpersonal Graduate Counseling Program. Karen Drucker, Psy.D, TEP was
part of the original Therapeutic Spiral Training Group in the 1990's. As a Licensed Psychologist and Board-Certified Trainer, Practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy, she runs
two monthly psychodrama training groups for therapists drawing on her vast experience with TSM teams both nationally and internationally, including Brisbane, Australia; Istanbul, Turkey; Nottingham
and Sheffield, U.K., and Baltimore, MD and Charlottesville, VA. She served as TSM Trainer for teams in Boulder, CO and Ottawa, Canada. Karen is a warm and engaging teacher and loves designing
trainings that are clear, powerful, and integrative for learning and experiencing. Her doctoral dissertation centered on the Containing Double, a TSM intervention designed to prevent
dissociation. Karen has a deep respect for the healing power of psychodrama and considers it part of her mission and purpose to teach students and therapists about the power and healing of
psychodrama. She is a graduate of the St. Elizabeth's Psychodrama Training program and American School for Professional Psychology/Virginia.