TFT Research in Uganda Published

Uganda TFT training of local community members

The most recent research in TFT, by R. Howard Robson, Phyll M. Robson, Roger Ludwig, Celestin Mitabu and Caitlin Phillips, has been published in “Science Publications“. Below is the abstract. For the full research paper, click here.

Effectiveness of Thought Field Therapy Provided by Newly Instructed Community Workers to a Traumatized Population in Uganda: A Randomized Trial

Abstract: Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a promising treatment for posttraumatic stress in a resource poor environment. This study further explores the benefits of this treatment in a rural population in Uganda, which had suffered from the psychological consequences of previous violent conflict. Thirty-six local community workers received a two-day training in TFT trauma intervention and treated 256 volunteers with symptoms suggestive of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who had been randomly allocated to a treatment or waitlist (control) group. Assessment was by the Posttraumatic Checklist for Civilians (PCL-C). One week after treatment, the treated group scores had improved significantly from 58 to 26.1. The waitlist group scores did improve without treatment, from 61.2 to 47, although significantly less than the treatment group, but improved markedly to 26.4 following treatment. There was some evidence of persisting benefit 19 months later. This study supports the value of TFT as a rapid, efficient and effective therapy, empowering traumatized communities to treat themselves, although repeated treatment may still be needed.

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I’m happy to announce that the TFT Foundation’s Uganda PTSD study has been published by Science Publications and will be available in print in about one month. It can now be accessed online by clicking on the title: Effectiveness of Thought Field Therapy Provided by Newly Instructed Community Workers to a Traumatized Population in Uganda: A Randomized Trial. (abstract below)

Many thanks to author Dr. R. Howard Robson for an excellent job! Much gratitude also goes to fellow research participants Phyll M. Robson, Roger Ludwig, Celestin Mitabu and Caitlin Phillips

Abstract: Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a promising treatment for posttraumatic stress in a resource poor environment. This study further explores the benefits of this treatment in a rural population in Uganda, which had suffered from the psychological consequences of previous violent conflict. Thirty-six local community workers received a two-day training in TFT trauma intervention and treated 256 volunteers with symptoms suggestive of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who had been randomly allocated to a treatment or waitlist (control) group. Assessment was by the Posttraumatic Checklist for Civilians (PCL-C). One week after treatment, the treated group scores had improved significantly from 58 to 26.1. The waitlist group scores did improve without treatment, from 61.2 to 47, although significantly less than the treatment group, but improved markedly to 26.4 following treatment. There was some evidence of persisting benefit 19 months later. This study supports the value of TFT as a rapid, efficient and effective therapy, empowering traumatized communities to treat themselves, although repeated treatment may still be needed.

 

 

 

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TFT Healing Trauma in Uganda

Ugandan TFT Mission: January 12 – 27, 2014

By Roger Ludwig*

Mists of mosquito netting drape around me as I type, cross-legged, on my bed. Beyond are cracked walls and doors ajar. Any effort to make and keep parallel lines in Africa is usually ephemeral. But to do that, in the form of a well ordered scientific study of Thought Field Therapy’s effectiveness, we have come, in addition to training many people and treating dozens of others.

Beyond this room, in the haze of heat, humidity and dust, are now familiar sounds. Children shout, men laugh. There is the loud cawing of ravens, relentless hoopoe of grey doves, and the distant, throbbing hum of the hulking cement factory which towers over this gritty town of Hima. It brings meager paychecks to workers who come from all over Uganda with their separate languages and appearances. They toil in hope of better lives for their wives and children. Our sweat is small in comparison but our dreams are similar for these Ugandan peoples we have come to love.

The work of our mission is now finished, ending, as it began, in fatigue. I arrived two weeks ago at 3:15 am, a smooth landing in Entebbe, grabbed bags and passed customs to see the ever hospitable Fr. Peter waiting to “most welcome” me. It is my third trip to Uganda. Fr. Peter’s musical laugh and loving heart is a tonic, to me and to hundreds of others.

Our Volunteer Team

After two hours’ sleep in a guest house I meet the team at breakfast. Dr. Howard Robson and his wife Phyll are here from England. They have recently retired, he from his cardiology practice, she from nursing. We have worked together on both prior Ugandan trips. It is great to see them.

One of our most important goals is to add to the 2012 study. At that time we trained volunteer TFT counselors, who pre-tested, then treated 256 people who came admitting symptoms of PTSD. A week later they were post-tested. It was a wait-list controlled effort that involved hundreds of people. Dr. Howard directed the study and has taken charge, in his relaxed manner, of this one. We hope to bring many of those 256 back, now 18 months later, for post testing. How have they fared after their brief treatment?

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Dr. Robson Presents Uganda Study Results

Dr. Howard Robson training Ugandan leaders in TFT, 2012

Phyll Robson, board member of TFT Foundation UK, gave the following report on the presentation given by foundation chairman Howard Robson, M.D., at the 2013 ACEP conference:

Dr. Howard Robson was very pleased to be presenting the research results from the PTSD study undertaken in Uganda in January last year, 2012. He described the care taken to follow protocol to ensure the study undertaken on 256 participants would be valid.

The Research presentation session was well attended, and there were many questions from the floor about the study itself, and about the psychological and physical changes we witnessed in the study participants after treatment. The audience were very impressed to learn that only one treatment session was provided to each participant, by a newly trained Algorithm Ugandan Therapist, to achieve our results.

Roger Ludwig gave a moving account of the changes he observed in the study participants, followed by an overview of the many transformations we observed in the local people not included in the study, but who were treated by the TFT team, some of the Catechists trained in 2009, and some of the newly trained Catechists who were keen to practice their new TFT skills.

I talked about a group of women we had treated the previous day, who were very excited when we met them again at the training centre. They told us how they had been able to sleep all night for the first time in years. Many people in Uganda suffer

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TFT Training and Research in Uganda, 2012

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The Uganda Project 2012

Dr. Howard Robson training Ugandan leaders in TFT

…from the perspective of the Norwegian team members, Mats Uldal and Bitta Wiese

By Bitta Wiese, Reg. Thought Field Therapist MNLH, Oslo, Norway

For Mats Uldal and myself it all started in June 2011. We had travelled from Norway
to attend the ACEP [Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology] conference in Reston, Virginia, and we split up to visit the different presenters/workshops and reported to each other afterwards. I chose to be the one visiting the session of Caroline Sakai and Suzanne Connolly, knowing about their work in the trauma committee and their studies on TFT in Rwanda.

These were exactly the kind of projects I had been dreaming of, being a co-founder and CEO of our brand new Mats Uldal Humanitarian Foundation. I also knew that Mats himself had wanted to start a foundation like ours long before I even knew what TFT was, and that he was eager to contribute in any way. After their brilliant presentation, I stood up and introduced myself and the foundation. Mats they knew already. There and then I eagerly suggested collaboration, and offered both Mats and me to come with them to the next project in Uganda in 2012.

12 months after the conference, our team was ready to go. We had frequent Skype meetings between USA, UK and Norway, led by Howard Robson, together with Joanne Callahan and Suzanne Connolly to plan and organize the trip. The team going to Uganda were Roger Ludwig from USA, Phyll and Howard Robson from UK and the two of us from Norway.

TFT Foundation USA suggested inviting Father JMV (Jean Marie Vianney), Celestine Mitabu, Deacon Augustin and Adrienne Nahayo from Rwanda to come, having experience previous studies in Rwanda. Howard would be in overall charge of the team and specific responsibility for the research study, and Phyll would be in charge of the trainings.

Our amazing host, Fr Peter, met us at the airport when we finally arrived at Entebbe at 4 am June 8th.

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TFT Trauma Relief and Training in Uganda

UGANDA 2012 – Short Report

by Howard and Phyll Robson 

We are delighted to make this short report on the TFT Foundation’s work in Uganda in June. The team worked hard to complete a packed program of research and training.

Training was provided for 310 Catechists at three centres within Kasese District of Western Uganda. To prepare for the PTSD study we first provided two days training for 40 catechists. These catechists would be the trainers in the PTSD study immediately following their Trauma Relief training.

The first day of the study was anxiety provoking, would all the participants attend? Many had to travel long distances, of-ten on foot. We were expectant that the study would be carried out effectively as we had been working on the details for over six months. Due to the lack of email facilities much of the detail was planned on the telephone with Fr. Peter, these conversations were recorded on our computer and sent by mail to avoid any misunderstandings.

Our first day went well in spite of our anxieties. However, the team met to identify and rectify any actual and potential problems. Working in a foreign language was challenging, due to pronunciation it was often difficult to understand each other, this difficulty improved quite quickly. The first part of the study took four days.

The first Catechist training took place in Nsenyi, the home of Fr. Peter and Training Centre for Catechists and 116 Catechists attended this two-day training.

We only had one day off before we undertook the second part of the study, again it took place over four days. We employed the same diligent method of having a team meeting each evening to ensure that all was going according to plan.

For the second training we moved to Bukangara Parish where we trained a further 104 Catechists. Each time we provided training and treatment for anyone who requested our help. The team travelled each day during the training to keep the cost down.

Following another day off, we moved to Hima Parish. Due to the distance involved we were guest of Fr Walter. We trained 90 Catechists at Hima Parish. Many of the sick in the Parish came to mass on Thursday, the day we arrived, and Fr Walter asked us to treat as many as possible. Two of the team were assigned to training and two treated the sick with the help of the Catechists we had trained for the study. We worked in the shade of the trees, watched by anxious relatives.

Saturday 30th June was the final day of the study, we planned to review 128 of the wait list group participants, for their post treatment assessment. Some of these participants had first attended on 13th June. We were concerned that there might be considerable fall off in attendance at this stage. It was therefore gratifying to be greeted by a large welcoming group of participants, still clutching their attendance tickets.

We are obligated to Fr. Peter and the catechists for their support and commitment to the completion of the PTSD study. They welcomed us into their lives and it was a pleasure to share the gift of Thought Field Therapy with them.

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TFT Studies in Rwanda and Uganda

I’m very pleased to report that a study conducted by the TFT Foundation in 2008 has been published in this month’s issue of International Journal of Emergency Mental Health.

Connolly, S., & Sakai, C. (2012). Brief trauma intervention with Rwandan genocide survivors, using Thought Field Therapy. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 13 (3), 161-172. 

I’m also pleased to announce that the TFT Foundation has recently been awarded a $5,000 grant from ACEP (Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology) to be used towards research that the Foundation will be conducting in Uganda this June: Using Thought Field Therapy to Treat Victims of Violence in Uganda. Many thanks to ACEP–and to Suzanne Connolly, MFT, LCSW, who submitted the proposal for the grant.

The TFT Foundation’s mission to Uganda is in response to a request from Father Peter Mubunga Basaliza of the Catholic Diocese of Kasese for a TFT trauma relief team to train 36 community leaders in Kasese in TFT trauma symptom reduction techniques.

The grant money will assist the TFT Foundation as it joins with the U.K. TFT Foundation and the Mats Udal Humanitarian Foundation in an effort to conduct the study in conjunction with the requested training.

The objectives of the TFT Foundation’s mission to Uganda this June are:

1. To continue developing and scientifically validating a model in which local community leaders can be trained to treat community members in the aftermath of large-scale disasters, especially in regions where trained professionals are scarce.
2. To relieve the distress of those suffering from trauma and promote Post Traumatic Growth (PTG).

Please push here if you would like to donate towards these efforts.

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Rwandan Orphans Project Recommendation

This letter was written by the director of the Rwandan Orphans Project in support of the upcoming TFT project in Uganda, a collaborative humanitarian mission between the USA-based TFT Foundation, the U.K. ATFT Foundation, and the Mats Uldal Humanitarian Foundation, Norway.

The project will follow the TFT Foundation’s large-scale model for trauma relief which includes giving humanitarian relief through TFT and training local leaders in TFT so that they can continue the work after the relief teams have left. The project will also include a 3rd TFT/PTSD study, as well as a TFT/malaria study led by Dr. Howard Robson.

If you would like to help us promote world peace and relief from suffering through the upcoming Uganda project, you may donate by clicking here. However much you can help is greatly appreciated.

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TFT Relieves 16-Year Old’s Trauma from Uganda Massacre

Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, TFT-Adv, shares the following story from the ATFT Foundation‘s recent mission to Rwanda:

Kamal holds his hands to his head and says with wonder, “It’s gone! I can’t remember it!” He jumps up and gives me a hug and won’t let go. He dances around the room so we dance around the room hugging tight.

Kamal is 16 and been through more than anyone of any age should have to go through. He was born while his mother was still studying at the University so he lived with his mother’s sister.

When Kamal was three years old his mother died. When he was six his aunt, the only mother he had known, was killed, leaving him and his cousin Abdul orphaned.

He and Abdul were sent to a refugee camp in Uganda and while there he witnessed a horrific massacre. Until now he could never get it out of his mind, and he felt constant sadness and could trust no one. He thought anyone could change at any moment and kill him. He lived in constant fear of danger.

“I know it happened still” he says, “but I can’t think about it!” “Oh I am so happy!” Thank you!  Thank you” “Murakoze.”  He hugs me again and we do the dance for the second time. He finally lets go and we say good bye.

I see Kamal later in the school yard. He has changed to a dress shirt and walks like he has springs attached to his feet. Sometimes he almost skips. He comes back to thank me once again.

It is great to be able to share this moment with Kamal, and to be able to share it, like so many moments, with you. So many beautiful moments shared here in Rwanda, thanks to TFT and the wonderful ATFT members who have contributed to this mission.

There are so many stories, Kamal’s (not his real name, of course) only the most recent.

To go to Suzanne’s blog about this mission to Rwanda, click here.

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