-- Janina Fisher

                    September 2004

When I was invited to participate in the United Kingdom Society for the Study of Dissociation Annual Conference as a keynote speaker, along with Ellert Nijenhuis, I didn’t know what to be more excited about!  The chance to present on the same podium as one of my heroes in the world of trauma,  the chance to travel in the United Kingdom at someone else’s expense or the honor of being a keynote speaker?   In fact, in my excitement, I forgot to ask many questions about the conference or about the state of the trauma and dissociation work in the UK.  It was to be a journey that offered even more than the pleasures I had anticipated, but also a number of surprises that made me appreciate the world in which I (and all of you) live and work.

            Surprise # 1:  The conference was held in the city of Leicester about an hour and a half from London at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Training Center.  This is an architecturally designed building with an incredible complex of meeting rooms, conference space and dining and dormitory facilities.  Imagine that!  Our English colleagues live in a country where low-cost or subsidized training in the treatment of trauma is available at a National Center! 

            Surprise # 2:  The UKSSD is now a tiny organization, one that reminds me of our own NESTTD when I became President in 2000.  There were 75 participants at the conference (less than our average attendance at Quarterly Meetings) and much talk of  “revitalization”  (code for “it’s been much worse”).  Even the EMDR community, whose members have become active participants in NESTTD, represents a different universe unconnected to the trauma and dissociation world of the UKSSD.

            Surprise # 3:  Shouldn’t have been a surprise.  Like NESTTD, the members of the UK society are passionate about what they do and bonded as a group.  Lunch table conversations described treatment settings and private practice environments in which therapists who are interested in trauma or, God forbid, believe in the existence of dissociative disorders, feel isolated and marginalized.

            Surprise # 4:  Because the National Training Center has dormitory and cafeteria space, these clinicians lived and worked together for the entire four days of the conference, and the highlights of their experience did not just include the preconference (a two-day introduction to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy taught by yours truly) and conference presentations.  A dinner excursion to an Indian restaurant, much late night wine tasting and a party featuring the creation of balloon animals were also highly rated events!

            Surprise # 5:  In the intimate atmosphere of such a small society, whose members from all over the UK have known each other for years, both Ellert and I could “hang out” and talk shop with other therapists interested in trauma.   It was such a treat to share and compare similar kinds of cases with collegial kindred spirits in an entirely different country.  At the same time, I was struck by the small number of faithful UKSSD members and so grateful for our comparatively large, rich trauma community in Boston.

            Surprise # 6:  George Rhoades, an American expert on ritual abuse and mind control, is a fixture here.  Corollary surprise: There is a very active subgroup in the UKSSD that focuses on issues of dissociation and mind control.  Because of the small size and marginalization of the UKSSD in the mental health community, it risks becoming a closed society focused on the particular interests of a few members.  That was part of the reason Ellert Nijenhuis and I were invited to speak; to widen perspective and excite interest in the wider world of trauma.

            Which brings me to a Not-So-Surprise:  We are very blessed in Boston!!  We come from the most trauma-intensive mental health community in Boston, the home of Jim Chu, Bessel van der Kolk, Judy Herman and the place where the programs they founded continue to prosper.    As I travel and speak in different parts of the US, clinicians are envious of what we have here, including both NESTTD and our sophisticated and passionate group of colleagues.  All we need now is a National Center and some balloon animals!

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