Therapeutic Spiral Model for trauma

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Therapeutic Spiral Model as Kate Hudgins describes it in her own papers and as Therapeutic Spiral International (TSI) teaches it. Core sources: Hudgins (2019), "Psychodrama revisited" (full text, hosted by TSI), which sets out the three-stage TSIRA map; Hudgins & Toscani (2014), "Containment = safety with action methods" (full text, hosted by TSI); TSI's "Updated Containing Double" page (2016); TSI's Six Safety Action Structures (Hudgins, ASGPP 2014, posted 2015); Hudgins' blog (2017); and the Springer chapter abstracts in Hudgins & Durost (2022). Giacomucci (2021), Social Work, Sociometry, and Psychodrama, chapters 7 and 14, fills gaps. Verification pass (Oct 2026): the TSIRA role lists, the containing double, the body double and the manager of defences have been checked against Hudgins' own papers and TSI pages and are now cited to them. Not drawn on: the full books (Hudgins 2002; Hudgins & Toscani 2013; Hudgins & Durost 2022) and the 2000 containing-double study (TSI's copy would not load). Points that depend on those works are still marked [uncertain].

The Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM) is a clinically modified form of classical psychodrama for trauma survivors. Kate Hudgins (PhD, TEP) and colleagues, including Francesca Toscani, developed it from the early 1990s. They had found that classical psychodrama could retraumatise people. The first TSM personal-growth workshop, "Surviving Spirits", began in 1992. TSI says TSM is now taught in 35 to 40-plus countries. [source: TSI About TSM; KH Denmark flyer 2018; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]

TSM is a model and training system, not a single technique. It provides a clinical role map, a set of group safety structures and modified psychodrama interventions. It is usually delivered as group workshops by a director with a trained team. [source: TSI About TSM]

How change happens. In TSM, trauma is held inside the person as three internalised roles: victim, perpetrator and abandoning authority (the "trauma triangle"). Change happens when the survivor first builds and embodies strength-based prescriptive roles for observation, containment and restoration. With those roles present, they can meet the trauma-based roles and respond in a new way instead of repeating them. That new response produces transformative roles of post-traumatic growth. Spontaneity, Moreno's "curative agent", is restored by working inside the window of tolerance. TSM shifts psychodrama's focus from interpersonal roles to the inner role structure. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8; Hudgins 2019 abstract on TSI site; Hudgins blog 2017]

Naming note: Hudgins & Toscani (2014) call the map the Trauma Survivor's Intrapsychic Role Atom. Hudgins (2019) calls it the trauma survivor's internal role atom and also uses "intrapsychic". Giacomucci uses "inner". All three names refer to the same map (TSIRA). [source: Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 106; Hudgins 2019; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, ch. 14]

2. Framework

Clinical map: the TSIRA in three stages. Hudgins (2019) presents the TSIRA as "a three-stage model to guide all action methods". The three groups of roles also set the order of treatment. [source: Hudgins 2019; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]

Stage 1: Prescriptive (RX) roles. Hudgins (2019) names seven "consistent" RX roles, grouped by function. Observation: the observing ego. Restoration: three kinds of strength (personal or internal, interpersonal, and transpersonal). Containment: the body double, the containing double and the manager of defences. Details are in section 4. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 64–67; Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 107]
Stage 2: Trauma-based roles (the TSM trauma triangle). These are the victim (also worked with as the wounded child), the perpetrator and the abandoning authority. TSM puts the abandoning authority in the place of Karpman's rescuer. The roles are internalised from the original trauma, as the spoken or unspoken messages of the perpetrator and of those who failed to protect. On stage, Hudgins places the perpetrator at the top, the victim on the left and the abandoning authority at the lower right. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 67–69; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]
Stage 3: Transformative roles of post-traumatic growth. Hudgins (2019) names four: the sleeping-awakening child; the good-enough roles (good-enough parent, good-enough significant other, or belief in something beyond the self); appropriate authority; and ultimate authority. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 70–71] Giacomucci reports eight transformative roles grouped under autonomy, integration and correction [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]. That count and grouping do not appear in Hudgins (2019) [uncertain].

Role counts differ between sources. Hudgins (2019) gives seven prescriptive roles, Giacomucci (2021) gives eight, and Giacomucci also reports 18 inner roles in total. This guide follows Hudgins (2019). The full role lists in Hudgins & Toscani (2013) and Hudgins & Durost (2022) are not reproduced here [uncertain].

Treatment phases. Hudgins (2019) describes three stages: prescriptive roles, then the trauma triangle, then transformation. Giacomucci groups these into two clinical phases, and this guide uses his two phases for planning. [source: Hudgins 2019; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8; TSI KH flyer 2018]

Phase 1: stabilisation and resourcing. Build strengths, teach containment and establish the observing ego. This uses the six safety action structures and prescriptive-role work. The aim is group cohesion, a visible container and a shared map.
Phase 2: working through. Trauma-based roles are approached only once the protagonist and the group can adequately access prescriptive roles. The work moves through the trauma triangle into transformative roles and a coherent narrative. It ends with closure and de-roling.

Criteria for moving from Phase 1 to Phase 2 [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 §14.5; TSI Six Safety Action Structures]:

The protagonist can call up prescriptive roles, especially the observing ego and containment.
The ego strength and window of tolerance of the protagonist, of each participant and of the group as a whole have been assessed. Any one of these can be the limiting factor.
Step-in sociometry has been used to gauge the risk of dissociation or uncontrolled regression before any trauma work.
Role reversal into a trauma role requires five demonstrated capacities: spontaneity and ego strength; the ability to stand apart from the trauma role; access to adaptive information within the role; the capacity to nurture the victim role; and the capacity to confront the perpetrator role appropriately.

If these criteria are not met, stay with strengths, internalised or metaphorical roles, or an empty chair.

Within-session sequence [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]: every structure moves from strengths, to defences, to trauma and feelings, and back to transformation. Each day ends on strengths or with the art project.

Format and dose.

Typical format: two- to three-day group workshops, staffed where possible by an "Action Healing Team" of TSI trainers and trainees. Example: a published workshop ran 10:00 to 18:00 on Friday and Saturday and 9:00 to 16:00 on Sunday. [source: TSI About TSM; TSI Trauma Triangle workshop listing 2019]
Other formats: individual or couples intensives over two days with a private team; ongoing groups; individual sessions using the same map. TSI describes the TSIRA as usable from individual therapy to large groups. [source: TSI About TSM]
Session count: the sources give no standard number of sessions. One reported containing-double application used three individual sessions. [source: KH Denmark flyer 2018] [uncertain]
Without a team: TSM can be done without a team, but TSI says it is most powerful with one. [source: TSI About TSM]

Team roles [source: TSI pages; Giacomucci 2021]:

Director: leads the session and is responsible for safety.
Action Healing Team: trained auxiliaries who play the containing double, body double and other roles, demonstrate structures and self-disclose first in sociometry.
Assistant leader or other titled roles: TSI training material may define these; they are not documented in the sources used [uncertain].

Professional frame.

TSM is taught by Therapeutic Spiral International through its International Certification Program in Trauma Therapy: Level I (Intro to Theory), Level II (Advanced Theory and Practice), a supervised practicum, and trainer certification. Online and hybrid options exist. [source: TSI site navigation]
TSM sits on a foundation of psychodrama training. In the US, psychodrama credentials are awarded by the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy (ABE). The professional association is ASGPP. TSM trainers typically hold the TEP credential. In the UK, psychodrama psychotherapists train through British Psychodrama Association–accredited routes and register with UKCP. Elsewhere, national psychodrama associations apply. [synthesis; specific entry requirements not verified]
Do not direct trauma scenes, trauma-role enactments or role reversals with perpetrator roles without psychodrama training plus TSM training and supervision. Giacomucci warns that untrained trauma work can retraumatise. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7] Phase-1 safety structures may be adapted by trained group therapists for strengths-only work. [synthesis]

Physical safety.

Space: use a clear stage area with no trip hazards, since participants stand, move and sometimes kneel or lie down.
Props: scarves are light, but they should not be tied around necks or bodies.
Art project materials: use non-toxic materials, supervise sharp tools, and avoid open flame.
Physical holding and touch: agree on these explicitly in advance (see section 4).

[synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

Safety before spontaneity. Spontaneity and play only emerge inside the window of tolerance. In practice: no action work until containment is in place. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.7.1]
Prescribe strengths before trauma. Prescriptive roles work like a clinician's prescription and are built before trauma is touched. Without them, enactment repeats the trauma. In practice: always resource first. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, ch. 14]
Intrapsychic focus. The work reorganises the survivor's inner role atom before interpersonal relationships. In practice: auxiliaries usually play parts of the self or internalised figures, not real people. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]
Enact the internalised trauma, not the original event. Enactment is directed at the victim, perpetrator and abandoning-authority roles as they live inside the person now, not at a literal re-enactment of the abuse. In practice: work with present-day internal messages. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8.2] [synthesis on practical meaning]
Name the absent protector. TSM replaces Karpman's rescuer with the abandoning authority, because nobody intervened. In practice: always ask who was not there, and build an appropriate authority. [source: TSI About TSM; Trauma Triangle listing]
Change comes from new roles meeting old ones. Catharsis alone does not change anything. In practice: every trauma scene must end in a corrective, transformative or developmental-repair scene. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 §14.5]
Build roles by experience, not talk. Prescriptive roles are developed through active participation in new, safe experiences. In practice: embody each strength; do not only discuss it. [source: Hudgins blog 2017]
The client controls the pace. Move from the periphery to the centre, and warm up before approaching the hardest material. In practice: ask before deepening, and accept "no". [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, citing Z. Moreno]
Assess three levels of tolerance. The protagonist, each audience member and the group can each be the weakest link. In practice: scan the audience as much as the stage. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Honour defences. Dissociation, freezing or "not wanting to" are usually trauma responses, not resistance. In practice: give the defence a role (manager of defences) and do not push past it. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Strengths–defences–trauma–transformation sequence. Each structure follows this arc and returns to strengths. In practice: never end a segment on trauma. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Team self-disclosure first. In sociometry, staff answer first to reduce shame. In practice: model the level of disclosure you want. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Cultural attunement. TSM is presented as adaptable across cultures, and transformative roles take different forms in each culture. In practice: let the group's own idioms shape roles, and do not impose your own cultural assumptions. [source: TSI pages; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]
De-role thoroughly. Role players, the protagonist and the audience must all leave roles behind, especially perpetrator roles. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 §14.6]

4. Intervention inventory

This section has three parts:

A. The six safety action structures (Phase 1). Source: Hudgins, ASGPP 2014, posted by TSI in 2015, credited also to Mario Cossa (observing-ego teaching), Francesca Toscani (art project) and Connie Lawrence (popcorn sharing). It builds on Cox (2001), which is not drawn on here. Giacomucci (2021) lists sociometric tools among them.
B. Prescriptive-role and clinical action interventions.
C. Trauma, transformation and closure interventions.

TSI's own descriptions give no timings. Durations below are omitted unless sourced.

A1. Observing Ego (OE) role

Purpose: gives a neutral, non-judging witness of the self. It is a cognitive container and a place to role-reverse into when overwhelmed. TSI uses the image of an eagle. Hudgins (2019) says the observing ego is always the first role concretised. She describes it as a cognitive self-awareness part that creates a container for the window of tolerance. It is introduced with inspiration cards and the idea of "no shame and no blame". Use it at the start of every workshop. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures; Hudgins 2019 p. 65]
Steps:
1. Lay out a mix of picture and word inspiration cards on the stage.
2. Each person chooses one or more cards that help them see themselves without judgement.
3. Participants share in pairs. The director may re-pair people or form groups of 4 or 6.
4. Post the cards on a wall for the whole workshop.
5. At the end of a session, a person can role-reverse into their OE card. From there they say what it witnessed, which anchors the change in words.
6. Cossa's teaching structure helps survivors distinguish the OE from being triggered. TSI names it but gives no procedure, so it is not described here [uncertain]. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "Pick a card that can look at you kindly, without judging. When things get loud later, this is where you can stand and watch."
Watch for: cards chosen to be critical ("a judge") rather than neutral. If so, invite a second choice. It is working when people can step into the OE spontaneously during later scenes and describe themselves in the third person with calm. [synthesis]

A2. Circle of Safety (also called the circle of strengths)

Purpose: makes strengths concrete and builds a visible container that marks the stage. Flashbacks and body memories can be placed inside it. Use it in Phase 1, and in individual work whenever a flashback breaks through. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps (group):
1. Pile coloured scarves in the centre, with the OE cards around them.
2. Participants pick scarves to represent their own intrapsychic, interpersonal and transpersonal strengths. TSI calls this the "Western way". In the "Asian way", members name strengths in each other. Large groups may enact small playback scenes of folk stories, myths or positive family scenes.
3. Lay the scarves in a circle that separates the stage from the audience. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps (individual, during a flashback):
1. Ask the client to stand and choose 3 to 6 scarves as strengths, and lay them in a circle in front of the chair.
2. The director adds scarves for the strengths they see in the client.
3. The client puts the flashback inside the circle, breathes and soothes the body.
4. Only then does the client look at the flashback for information about the past, while staying in the present. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps (couples and families): each person builds their own circle. Members then overlap circles, keep their own, or make a shared relationship circle. TSI says this reveals enmeshment, defences and healthy connection. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "Choose a scarf for something that helped you survive. Say its name as you place it. Let's put what just came up inside your circle, where your strengths can hold it."
Watch for: people who cannot name any strength. Have the group or team name strengths for them. It is working when the client's breathing settles once the flashback has been placed, and they can talk about it from outside the circle. [synthesis]

A3. Spectrograms (with the Sound Wave)

Purpose: an action measure of present experience on a 1–10 line. It moves the group into action and builds cohesion. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps:
1. Two team auxiliaries mime unrolling a string between them and play with it, which engages the right brain.
2. Give criteria in sequence: strengths, then defences, then trauma and feelings, then transformation.
3. Participants stand on the line and speak individually, in pairs or in clusters. Each cluster chooses a reporter.
4. The director may ask for sound and movement instead of words.
5. Sound Wave: when people are spread along the line, each person sounds at their number, moving up and down the line several times. TSI's example is earthquake responders in China in 2008 rating their hope. Feeling was expressed without detailed disclosure. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "One end is 'I can barely feel my feet today'; the other is 'I'm fully here.' Find your spot. No need to explain."
Watch for: clustering at the extremes, or people standing off the line. Use these as assessment data on arousal and isolation. The Sound Wave lets distressed people express feeling without disclosing detail. [synthesis]

A4. Hands on Shoulders

Purpose: sociometric choosing that warms people up to protagonist and auxiliary roles. It makes connection, projection and transference visible, and shows who is unchosen. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Steps:
1. Give a criterion. Each person places a hand on the shoulder of the person they choose.
2. Sequence the criteria: strengths, then trauma-based roles, then transformative roles.
3. Vary the criteria so that choices spread out. Notice isolates and change criteria so that they are chosen.
4. If someone has to speak to a person they find difficult, a containing double supports them. TSI's workplace example criteria include choosing someone to play your courage, someone to confide in, someone to give difficult feedback to, and someone to count on. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "Put your hand on the shoulder of someone who could play your courage today."
Watch for: touch sensitivity. Offer a hand held just above the shoulder, or pointing, as alternatives, and agree this beforehand [synthesis]. It is working when choices spread, and isolates are reached by later criteria.

A5. Step-in sociometry (circle of similarities)

Purpose: builds cohesion and names strengths and difficulties, which counters isolation. It also lets the team assess the risk of dissociation or uncontrolled regression before trauma work. TSI often moves it to day two so that the first evening ends on strengths. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps:
1. Run each set of questions from strengths, to defences, to trauma, back to transformation.
2. Team members open each set with items they can self-disclose, which lowers shame.
3. Invite "popcorn style" questions from the group.
4. The director chooses the response mode: words, sound or movement, or simply stepping in and out. TSI's examples, paraphrased: birth order or pets (strengths); default dissociation, addiction or eating problems (defences); verbal or sexual abuse, or "my trauma isn't as bad as others'" (trauma); having told one person most of one's story (transformation). [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "Step in if you sometimes go away inside when things get too much. Look around: you are not the only one. Step back out."
Watch for: blank faces or freezing, and people who step in to every trauma item but no strength items. Flag these people for containing-double support and slower pacing. [synthesis]

A6. Art project

Purpose: an external container for strengths, traumas and transformation. It makes unconscious material visible across the workshop and ends each day. Francesca Toscani developed it. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Steps:
1. Each person, or the group, makes a piece. TSI's examples are sand trays, collages, dream catchers, containers, masks and soul maps.
2. Start by representing strengths.
3. Then add defences and trauma.
4. Then add new objects for transformation.
5. Share it simply, or role-reverse with the piece and give a message to self or group. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
Example language (illustrative): "Add one thing that stands for what shifted today. Become your container for a moment: what would you tell her?"
Watch for: do not interpret the artwork diagnostically. It is a container, not an assessment of abuse [synthesis]. Use non-toxic materials and supervise sharp tools.

B1. Containing Double (CD)

Purpose: TSM's signature prescriptive role of containment. It is a variation of Moreno's double, developed by Hudgins and colleagues over about ten years for trauma survivors and people who dissociate. It keeps the protagonist from being overwhelmed by feelings or defences, so that they can keep functioning and are not re-traumatised. The classical double may voice things the protagonist is not yet aware of. The CD instead "ONLY makes supportive statements", always in the first person. Hudgins & Toscani (2014) give the CD three duties: (1) hold or steady, by establishing safety through containing affect, intellectualisation and defences; (2) anchor and ground in the present moment, by putting words to the confusion the protagonist is feeling; (3) lead forward, into deeper understanding and connection with a broader picture. They note that these duties remain essentially the same today. Hudgins (2019) describes the same three parts and says the CD balances thinking and feeling. [source: TSI The Containing Double 2016; TSI Updated Containing Double 2016; Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 106; Hudgins 2019 p. 67]
- If the protagonist is flooded with feeling, the CD contains the feeling and helps put it into words.
- If the protagonist intellectualises, the CD contains the thinking and opens access to feelings and sensations. Hug (2013) likens this to the corpus callosum. TSI reports that the CD reduced dissociation, depression and PTSD symptoms (Hudgins, Drucker & Metcalf 2000) [uncertain: outcome reported second-hand]. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8.1; KH Denmark flyer 2018]
When: the director prescribes the CD. It walks with the protagonist through every role and "never leaves the protagonist's side". Use it from the first warm-up and whenever a protagonist approaches trauma material or must speak to a difficult person, as in Hands on Shoulders. TSI teaches CD practice in triads at its containment workshops. [source: Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 106; Giacomucci 2021; TSI Six Safety Action Structures; TSI Containment workshop flyer 2020]
Steps. These are built from TSI's three statement types and the worked example in Hudgins & Toscani (2014). TSI stresses that the statement types are not a fixed script and are adapted to the moment [source: TSI The Containing Double]. Finer detail of the 2000 protocol is [uncertain].
1. Before action, the protagonist chooses the CD, or the director prescribes a team member. When TSI introduces the role, it asks protagonists to correct the CD and keep only what fits: "make sure to say what is right for you". Agree where the CD will stand and whether touch is allowed. [source: TSI Updated Containing Double; touch agreement: synthesis]
2. The CD speaks in the first person ("I"), as the role inside the protagonist that knows their strengths. [source: TSI Updated Containing Double]
3. Reflecting (empathic) statement: the CD accurately reflects what the protagonist is aware of now (feelings, thoughts, defences and their intensity), ideally in the protagonist's own words, without amplifying or developing it. [source: TSI The Containing Double; TSI Updated Containing Double]
4. Containment statement: the CD reminds the protagonist of their strengths, their ability to cope and their capacity to breathe and stay with the experience. [source: TSI The Containing Double] In Hudgins & Toscani's worked example, a self-calming breath is the hold-or-support statement, and noticing clenched hands is a separate cognitive statement. [source: Hudgins & Toscani 2014 pp. 106–107]
5. Here-and-now statement: the CD anchors and grounds the protagonist in the present through sensory details of the room, the people present and the time, and the reminder that they are an adult and safe now; in the worked example, the CD breathes again, looks around and knows it is in a safe place. [source: TSI The Containing Double; Hudgins & Toscani 2014 pp. 106–107]
6. Lead forward, one small step at a time. The CD "chunks down" whirling emotions and thoughts into portions the client can handle at that moment, so as not to retraumatise; in the worked example the hands are invited to tell or show the group just one thing. [source: Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 107] A sequence of curiosity about what is being held, then safe expression of the feeling (whom is the anger toward, and what do I want to say?), then a next step in the scene is [synthesis].
7. Make the container smaller or larger as needed. Whenever arousal rises, go back to reflecting, containing and anchoring. [source: Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 106]
8. The protagonist corrects or repeats each statement. The CD drops any statement that does not fit. [source: TSI Updated Containing Double; synthesis on wording]
Example language (illustrative):
- With a flooded protagonist: "I'm feeling my chest tighten… I can take one slow breath… I'm here in this room, with my courage scarf, not back there."
- With an intellectualising protagonist: "I'm explaining it really well… and I notice my hands are clenched. I wonder what they're holding."
Watch for: the protagonist leaving the window of tolerance (glazed eyes, losing track of time, collapse) while the CD keeps talking. Slow down and return to holding and anchoring. A CD that interprets, confronts or voices unconscious material has slipped into classical doubling; bring it back to supportive statements. The CD is working when the protagonist starts to say the anchoring lines themselves, which shows the role is being internalised as a prescriptive role. [source: TSI Updated Containing Double on supportive statements; rest synthesis]

B2. Body Double (BD)

Purpose: a prescriptive role of containment. Hudgins (2019) describes the BD as an inner voice for "self-soothing, self-regulation, and here-and-now awareness" of bodily cues and nonverbal behaviour. It tracks facial expression, breathing and proprioception to help the protagonist modulate unconscious trauma responses. One auxiliary can play the BD and the CD together. Burden & Ciotola (2001) developed the BD for TSM; see also Carnabucci & Ciotola (2013). Giacomucci also lists the BD as a prescribed role in body-image work. [source: Hudgins 2019 p. 67; Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 107; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, ch. 14]
When: with protagonists who lose touch with their body, freeze or dissociate, or who show strong somatic trauma responses; also in body-image work. [source: Hudgins 2019; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14] [synthesis on indications]
Steps. No published step-by-step procedure is available in the sources used. The sequence below is a working synthesis consistent with Hudgins' description. It is not a TSM protocol. [synthesis; uncertain against Burden & Ciotola 2001]
1. Agree proximity and touch with the protagonist, including a stop signal.
2. The BD stands beside the protagonist and matches their posture and breathing at a slight lag.
3. Speaking in the first person, the BD names the bodily cues it is tracking: facial expression, breath, muscle tension, where the feet are.
4. The BD models one small self-soothing or regulating action, such as pressing the feet down, a longer out-breath or a hand on the sternum. The protagonist follows if they choose.
5. If dissociation shows, the BD makes more grounding statements and gives orienting cues, such as naming three colours in the room or feeling the chair.
Example language (illustrative): "My feet are on the floor… I can feel them pressing. My jaw is tight. I'm breathing out a little longer."
Watch for: mirroring that amplifies a collapse instead of steadying it. Lead gently toward an upright, oriented posture. The BD is working when the protagonist's breathing slows and they report sensation instead of numbness. [synthesis]

B3. Manager of Defences

Purpose: a prescriptive role of containment. It steers the survivor toward healthy coping instead of the primitive defences of fight, flight or freeze. It recognises protective defences, such as dissociation, addiction or rationalisation, and decides when a defence is needed, instead of letting it run automatically. Use it when defences show up in sociometry or during action. [source: Hudgins 2019 p. 67; Hudgins & Durost 2022 ch. 10 abstract; Hudgins blog 2017; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Frame: Hudgins & Durost (2022) sort defences into three categories: survival defences; obsessions and compulsions; and maladaptive defences. They also use the "Wobble", which divides defences into intrusive ones (such as flashbacks and negative thinking) and avoidant ones (such as dissociation and denial). [source: Hudgins & Durost 2022 ch. 10 abstract]
Steps. TSM describes the manager of defences as a two-part intervention. [source: Hudgins & Durost 2022 ch. 10 abstract; Hudgins 2019]
1. Make a place to hold the defences, both psychologically and physically. For example, the protagonist casts the defence with a scarf or an auxiliary and places it where they can see it, rather than removing it from the scene. [two-part structure sourced; concretisation details synthesis]
2. Develop the manager: the role that decides when the defence is needed and notices when it is running on automatic. Start with warm-ups that help people relate to their defences instead of being taken over by them. Then build the manager through role taking, role playing and role creating. Role reversal into the manager gives the strongest connection to it. [source: Hudgins & Durost 2022 ch. 10 abstract]
- Within step 2, the protagonist can interview the defence in role reversal (what does it protect against, and when did it start?). They can then thank it and negotiate with it, for example agreeing that it can step back while the CD is present. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "You've kept her alive by switching off. We're not getting rid of you. Can you stand right here and watch, and step in if it gets too much?"
Watch for: directors treating the defence as resistance; Giacomucci says to honour defences [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]. The manager is working when the protagonist can name the defence while it is happening and choose, from the manager role, to lower it. [synthesis]

B4. Embodying other prescriptive roles (restoration, containment, observation)

Purpose: to build the prescriptive roles as felt experiences before any trauma work. Hudgins (2019) names seven RX roles: the observing ego (A1); three restorative strengths, namely personal or internal (e.g. perseverance), interpersonal (e.g. a good teacher, inner helpers) and transpersonal; and three containment roles, namely the body double (B2), the containing double (B1) and the manager of defences (B3). Hudgins & Toscani (2014) name the same set. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 64–67; Hudgins & Toscani 2014 p. 107] Other accounts name specific strengths. Giacomucci (ch. 14) lists interpersonal support, courage/willingness, self-love, boundaries and compassionate witness. TSI (About TSM) lists containment, self-regulation, resilience and neutral observation. Hudgins' 2017 blog names an observer, a strengths/self-care role, the "one who contains", a body-attuned role and a defence-managing role. Treat these as examples within the seven roles, not as a competing list. [synthesis on reconciliation]
Steps (following the worked example in Hudgins 2019):
1. The director prescribes strengths. The protagonist chooses them, from the circle of safety or from the hands-on-shoulders choices, and picks group members to play them, each holding a matching scarf. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 65–67; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14; TSI on scarves]
2. The protagonist role-reverses into each strength in turn, and the director interviews it: what it knows and when it first appeared. In Hudgins' example, two role reversals (first an internal strength, then a transpersonal figure from childhood) make up a full prescriptive drama without re-enacting the trauma. [source: Hudgins 2019]
3. The protagonist returns to self, and the auxiliaries repeat each strength's key message. [synthesis]
4. The strengths stand around or behind the protagonist for the rest of the drama. In a strengths-only drama, the scene can close by concretising images, as Hudgins does with scarves and a symbolic lake, and then releasing them. [source: Hudgins 2019 example; synthesis on placement]
Example language (illustrative): "Become your courage. Courage, how long have you known her? What do you want her to remember when she faces what's coming?"
Watch for: "strengths" that are really compliance or caretaking. Check with the observing ego whether the role is truly nourishing. [synthesis]

B5. Working with projective identification in the group

Purpose: TSM holds that protagonists project parts of the self onto group members, who may unconsciously take up those roles. Bringing those members into the scene lets the protagonist reclaim the split-off part. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14, citing Hogenboom 2020]
Steps:
1. Notice when audience members react strongly or are repeatedly chosen for a role.
2. With consent, invite them into the scene in that role.
3. Use role reversal and mirroring so the protagonist experiences the part as their own.
4. De-role explicitly afterwards (see C6). [synthesis on steps]
Watch for: auxiliaries getting stuck in roles that touch their own unresolved trauma. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]

C1. Enacting the trauma triangle (victim, perpetrator, abandoning authority)

Purpose: to externalise the internalised trauma roles so the protagonist can meet them with prescriptive roles present, and respond in a new way. Use this only in Phase 2, after the readiness criteria in section 2 are met. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8.2, ch. 14 §14.5]
Steps:
1. Confirm the contract: what the protagonist wants to change, and which internal message they want to stop obeying.
2. The CD/BD and the chosen strengths are on stage before any trauma role enters.
3. Choose the lowest-intensity form of the trauma role that will work. Options run from a metaphorical or internal role ("the critical voice"), to an empty chair, to a scarf, to a live auxiliary standing at a distance. Giacomucci recommends the empty chair to limit the role's power. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
4. Sequence the techniques. Use doubling first (to stabilise, express and label), then mirroring (to give distance and an accurate view of the self, using the observing ego), and trauma-role reversal last, only when readiness has been shown. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14] Hudgins & Durost (2022) start from a prescriptive role of strength. They then give a step-by-step progression for victim and perpetrator roles, through role taking, role playing and role creating, designed to prevent re-traumatisation and uncontrolled catharsis. Their detailed steps are not drawn on here. [source: Hudgins & Durost 2022 ch. 9 abstract] [uncertain on details]
5. Give voice to the abandoning authority: who failed to protect, and what was not said or done. [source: TSI Trauma Triangle listing; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7] [synthesis on step]
6. Keep the focus on present-day internal messages. Do not re-enact the literal abuse. [synthesis]
7. Move immediately into transformation (C2 to C4). Catharsis alone is not the goal. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Example language (illustrative): "We're not going back into what happened. We're putting the voice that still lives in you in that chair, over there, with your courage beside you. What does it tell you, even now?"
Watch for:
- The protagonist over-identifying with the perpetrator role, or rehearsing violence.
- Losing the ability to de-role.
- Audience members flooding. Giacomucci lists these as risks of premature trauma-role reversal [source: ch. 14]. It is working when the protagonist can speak to the trauma role from the observing ego with a steady voice, and set a boundary.

C2. Appropriate Authority

Purpose: an internal role that interrupts the cycle of abandonment, victimisation and perpetration against the self. It sets boundaries between the victim and perpetrator roles and supports right action and self-regard. It is the transformative answer to the abandoning authority. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 70–71; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, citing Hudgins & Toscani 2013; TSI About TSM]
Steps:
1. Ask the protagonist who should have been there, or what wise, protective authority they can imagine now.
2. Cast this role, often first played by the protagonist in role reversal.
3. Appropriate authority steps between the victim and perpetrator roles and speaks a boundary.
4. The protagonist returns to self and hears it, then speaks it as their own. [synthesis on steps]
Example language (illustrative): "Step into the one who should have stopped it. Stand between them. What do you say now?"
Watch for: an "authority" that becomes punitive, which turns it into a new perpetrator role. Redirect it toward protection, not revenge. [synthesis]

C3. Sleeping-Awakening Child

Purpose: the role that holds innocence, goodness, creativity and spontaneity. These qualities are not lost; they are asleep until life is safe enough. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 70–71; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7, citing Hudgins 2017; TSI About TSM]
Steps:
1. After a boundary is set, invite the protagonist to find or cast the part that was asleep.
2. The protagonist can hold the child at a chosen distance, wake it gently, or simply watch it from the observing ego.
3. Use surplus reality for play and imagination. [synthesis on steps; surplus reality: source Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7]
Example language (illustrative): "Somewhere there's the part of you that used to make up songs. She's been sleeping. Does she want to wake up today, or just be seen?"
Watch for: age regression beyond what the protagonist can observe. Keep the CD present and the adult self on stage. [synthesis]

C4. Corrective connection roles and developmental repair

Purpose: the good-enough roles provide corrective emotional experiences and meet unmet needs. Hudgins (2019) names three: the good-enough parent, the good-enough significant other, and belief in something beyond the self. They are rehearsed in surplus reality so the protagonist can take them into daily life. [source: Hudgins 2019 pp. 70–71; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 §7.8.3, ch. 14] Giacomucci groups eight transformative roles under autonomy, integration and correction, with ultimate authority integrating them. Hudgins (2019) names ultimate authority but not that grouping [uncertain].
Steps:
1. The protagonist names the unmet need.
2. They cast a good-enough figure (not an idealised one).
3. In role reversal, they give the figure its words.
4. They return and receive them.
5. Role-train new responses for future triggers. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 on role training] [synthesis on steps]
Example language (illustrative): "Not perfect, just good enough. What would a good-enough mother have said that night?"
Watch for: grief surfacing when a need is finally met. Allow it, with containment. It is working when the protagonist can take in the message bodily (breath, posture) and repeat it. [synthesis]

C5. Multiple-protagonist moments

Purpose: after a climax, audience members briefly step in to speak to a role as their own figure. This increases involvement, supports integration and cools the protagonist toward closure. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Steps: keep each contribution short and contained. Invite only people who have shown capacity in sociometry. Return to the protagonist to close. [source + synthesis]
Watch for: it opening new material in someone who is not resourced. Use step-in data to decide whom to invite. [synthesis]

C6. De-roling

Purpose: role players, the protagonist, the director and the group must all experience each auxiliary as out of role, especially after perpetrator roles. Otherwise projection and transference continue. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 §14.6]
Steps (methods, use one or more):
1. Body movement: shake the role off with spontaneous movement.
2. Difference statements: the role player says aloud how they differ from the role, in circumstances and in qualities.
3. De-roling station: a playful surplus-reality station where players are "washed" or "unzipped" back into themselves.
4. Mini empty chair: the player puts the role in a chair and speaks to it, separating from it and modelling grounded, compassionate statements.
5. Audience de-roling: at the end of the enactment, release audience members from the witness role so they rejoin the group. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14] Return all scarves and props to the centre, and strike the set. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 13 heading] [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "I am not your father. I'm Sam, I'm 34, I don't have children, and I'm patient. I'm putting him in this chair and leaving him there."
Watch for: a role player who stays quiet, avoided or flat afterwards, or a protagonist who still flinches at that person. Repeat de-roling and check in privately. [synthesis]

C7. Sharing and closure

Purpose: to integrate the session, reconnect the protagonist with the group, and end on strengths and the observing ego. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Steps:
1. Run de-roling (C6) first.
2. Group members share from their own experience and roles, not with advice or analysis. This is the standard psychodrama sharing convention [synthesis; Giacomucci 2021 ch. 13 heading]. TSI credits Connie Lawrence with a "popcorn-style" sharing; its procedure is not documented in the sources used [uncertain].
3. The protagonist role-reverses into their OE card and names what it witnessed.
4. End the day with the art project, adding a transformation object.
5. Do a final grounding check. Plan for the gap before the next session (see section 5). [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures; synthesis on 5]
Example language (illustrative): "From your eagle's view, what did you see her do today that's new?"
Watch for: members who did not share, or who look dissociated. Do a brief individual check-in before they leave. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The sources give limited problem-handling guidance beyond the readiness checks and de-roling (Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14) and step-in sociometry as risk screening (TSI). Everything else here is marked [synthesis].

Screening before a workshop [synthesis; ego-strength assessment beforehand: source Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]

Hold an individual intake before the group. Cover:
- trauma history in outline only (no detailed narrative);
- dissociative symptoms;
- current suicidality and self-harm;
- substance use;
- psychosis or mania;
- current contact with a perpetrator or ongoing abuse;
- medical conditions affected by strong arousal;
- pregnancy and mobility limits;
- current outside therapist and support network.
Defer trauma-scene work, offering resourcing only, for people with:
- active suicidal intent or recent serious self-harm;
- active psychosis;
- current intoxication or withdrawal;
- ongoing abuse or a risk of contact with the perpetrator;
- severe dissociation without an outside therapist;
- legal proceedings where enactment could affect testimony (take advice).
Agree in writing:
- the right to say no or stop at any time, and a stop signal;
- touch preferences;
- confidentiality and its limits;
- how distress is handled during and after the workshop;
- consent to contact the client's own therapist.
Children and young people: TSI cites youth resilience work (Cossa 2020) [uncertain: content not summarised]. Do not run trauma-triangle enactment with minors without specific training. Obtain parental consent plus the young person's own assent, follow local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting law, and use metaphor, puppets or objects instead of live perpetrator roles. [synthesis; uncertain]

Overwhelm, flashback or hyperarousal during action

Stop the scene. The containing double moves to anchoring statements.
Use the individual Circle of Safety: the client chooses scarves and puts the flashback inside the circle, breathes and soothes. [source: TSI Six Safety Action Structures]
The protagonist role-reverses into the observing ego and describes the scene from outside. [source: TSI]
Reduce the intensity of the trauma role: from live auxiliary, to empty chair, to scarf, to removing it from the stage. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14] [synthesis on order]
Resume only if the protagonist chooses to and is back in the window of tolerance. Otherwise close on strengths. [synthesis]

Dissociation or hypoarousal (glazed, flat, losing time, freezing)

The body double grounds with sensory orientation and posture. Lower the voice and slow the pace. Offer movement such as standing or pressing the feet. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7 on the BD preventing dissociation] [synthesis on details]
Name the defence kindly through the manager of defences instead of pushing past it. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Do not role-reverse a dissociated protagonist into a trauma role. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]

Retraumatisation after the session (nightmares, flashbacks, self-harm urges in the following days)

Plan before the workshop: name an aftercare contact; get permission to inform the person's own therapist; agree a check-in within 24 to 72 hours for protagonists of trauma scenes.
Afterwards: return to Phase-1 resourcing. Review what tipped the person over, which is usually pace, the audience, or an auxiliary resembling the perpetrator. Do a suicide and self-harm risk review using your service's standard risk assessment, and safety planning where needed.
Report adverse events through your supervision and governance routes.

[synthesis]

An audience member is triggered by someone else's drama

Team members watch the audience throughout. A team member, or the CD, sits with the person and offers grounding, or a brief exit with a staff member.
Bring them back for sharing and de-roling, which reduces the risk of remaining isolated in the witness role. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 on audience de-roling and group tolerance] [synthesis on steps]

Auxiliary or team member stuck in role, or triggered

Use difference statements, the mini empty chair and the de-roling station. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Do not cast people in roles close to their own unresolved trauma. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14]
Staff process their reactions in team debrief and supervision. [synthesis]

Over-identification with the perpetrator, or aggression in role

Stop the role reversal immediately and return the protagonist to self and the observing ego.
Have the role placed in a chair (mini empty chair), and reinforce appropriate authority (protection, not revenge).
Physical aggression toward people is never permitted. Use agreed safe outlets only, such as pushing against a padded object held by trained staff, within strict physical-safety rules.

[source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14 on risks] [synthesis on responses]

"Stuck" clients: cannot name strengths, or keep returning to the victim role

Slow down and stay in Phase 1.
Use the "Asian way" in the Circle of Safety, where others name strengths for the client. [source: TSI]
Use a metaphorical or transpersonal strength (nature, faith, an animal card).
Use mirroring so they watch an auxiliary playing them with a CD. [synthesis]

Apparent resistance or non-participation

Treat it as a defence or trauma response, not opposition. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 14] Offer graded participation: observing ego only, then sound instead of words, then stepping in and out. Make it explicit that witnessing is participation. [source: TSI on response modes] [synthesis]

Ruptures with the director or group (feeling unchosen, shamed or misattuned)

Use sociometry to make choices visible, and add criteria that reach isolates. [source: TSI Hands on Shoulders]
Acknowledge misattunement openly in the group. Ask what would help, and repair with the person before they leave.
Watch for cultural misattunement and your own assumptions. [source: Giacomucci 2021 ch. 7] [synthesis on repair]

Non-adherence between sessions (self-care not practised, missed follow-ups)

Turn prescriptive roles into portable cues: a photo of the art project, the OE card, a scarf.
Agree a small daily practice of calling up the containing voice. [synthesis]

Touch and physical contact

Body double, hands on shoulders and supportive holding all involve proximity or touch.
Ask each person explicitly, offer non-touch alternatives, and allow opt-out at any time without needing a reason.
Be culturally and trauma-aware.
Touch is never sexual and never on intimate areas.
Recheck consent when roles change.

[synthesis]

Disclosure of current abuse or risk to others

Follow your local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties. Tell participants about these limits in advance. [synthesis]

Working without a team, or in individual therapy

Use objects, scarves and empty chairs instead of auxiliaries. The therapist can briefly voice a containing double while staying the director, or teach the client to speak their own containing statements. TSI says TSM can be done without a team, though it is stronger with one. [source: TSI About TSM] [synthesis on method]

Sources

Web pages:

Further web pages (October 2026 verification):

Books and papers cited [uncertain for details attributed only via secondary sources]:

Giacomucci, S. (2021). Social Work, Sociometry, and Psychodrama. Springer (open access).
Hudgins, M. K. (2002). Experiential Treatment for PTSD: The Therapeutic Spiral Model. Springer Publishing.
Hudgins, M. K., & Toscani, F. (2013). Healing World Trauma with the Therapeutic Spiral Model: Psychodramatic Stories from the Frontlines. Jessica Kingsley.
Hudgins, K., Drucker, K., & Metcalf, K. (2000). The containing double: a clinically effective psychodrama intervention for PTSD. British Journal of Psychodrama and Sociodrama. (TSI's own reference list gives Hudgins, M. K., Druker, K., & Metcalfe, K. (2000), The Containing Double, 15(1); author spellings and title differ between sources [uncertain].)
Hudgins, K. (2019). Psychodrama revisited: through the lens of the internal role map of the Therapeutic Spiral Model to promote post-traumatic growth. Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie, 18, 59–74. (Full text; see above.)
Burden, K., & Ciotola, L. (2001). The body double (TSM clinical action module).
Cox, M. (2001). Original paper on the TSM safety structures.
Hudgins, K., & Durost, S. (2022). Experiential Therapy from Trauma to Post-Traumatic Growth: Therapeutic Spiral Model Psychodrama. Springer.

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