Our team leaders and therapists donate their time and often pay much of their own travel expenses. Ninety three percent of the revenue the TFT Foundation receives goes directly toward programs, which exceeds the established industry benchmark for nonprofit organizations.
An At-A-Glance History of TFT Foundation (Formerly ATFT Foundation) |
2002-2005: Psychologist and TFT practitioner Carl Johnson, PhD, led privately funded teams on nine separate trauma relief missions to Kosovo. Dr. Johnson and his teams used TFT to treat 189 war survivors for 547 traumas. All but two survivors reported relief from symptoms (using SUD scale). On a separate trauma relief mission Dr. Johnson and Paul Oas, PhD, treated 51 war survivors in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 547 traumas. All but one person (using SUD scale) reported relief in symptoms of trauma. Dr. Oas traveled on to Kwazulu-land and treated 97 persons for various traumas and all reported (using SUD scale), relief of trauma symptoms. Inspired by their pioneering efforts, the ATFT Foundation, a 501(3)(c) charitable organization, was formed in the U.S. More: SPECIAL REPORT: AFRICA PROJECT by Mary Cowley, PhD. Click to download. FOLLOW-UP REPORT ON KOSOVO by Joanne Callahan, MBA. Click to read more. TFT Provides Relief for Kosovo Victims. Click to read. |
2005: The first ATFT Foundation Trauma Relief team was led by Mary Cowley, PhD, and included TFT practitioners and trainers from the U.S., the U.K., and Mexico. They had been invited to Tanzania to train 81 community leaders to use TFT to help others. A second purpose of the mission was to conduct a pilot study to determine if TFT could be effective in reducing symptoms of malaria. Significant relief of symptoms through TFT was experienced, as shown by the SUD scale and other indicators.Click here to read “Africa Revisited” |
January 2006: An invitation to assist Charity Hospital staff post-Hurricane Katrina was accepted and an ATFT Foundation team of 13 was formed by team leader Nora Baladerian, PhD. A dedicated TFT MASH tent was set up at the New Orleans Convention Center (the new home of the hospital); where the team treated hospital staff including MD’s, nurses, interns, police personnel and others. The team also offered trauma treatments to various New Orleans organizations during their stay. |
March 2006: A second ATFT Foundation deployment to New Orleans was led by Caroline Sakai, PhD, at the request of Charity Hospital administrators. The purpose of this trip was to train staff members of Charity Hospital and other local hospitals in the use of TFT to treat others.Read more here |
April 2006: An ATFT Trauma Relief deployment was led by Paul Oas, PhD, to Kigali, Rwanda, in response to a request from a Rwandan U.S. Embassy nurse practitioner. The team used TFT with all 400 street children at the center. Caroline Sakai, PhD, led a study, and after a one year follow-up, results were published in the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health (12), 2010. Over 30 community leaders from various parts of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were trained to use TFT to help others.Read more here |
August 2006: The ATFT Foundation sponsored a third trauma relief mission to New Orleans, led by Nora Baladerian, PhD, in response to a request by Charity Hospital to treat 53 staff members at its sister facility in Lafayette, LA.Read more here |
April 2007: A second trauma relief team, led by Paul Oas, PhD, was deployed to Rwanda where the team assisted Caroline Sakai, PhD, in conducting a one year follow-up to the 2008 study at El Shadai Center for Street Children. The results were published in the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health (12), 2010. Additionally, many children new to the orphanage were treated by the team. Thirty-three community leaders received a two-day basic training in TFT and a refresher course was provided for those previously trained in 2006. A TFT training, sponsored by U.S. Aide and Catholic Relief Services, was attended by religious and lay leaders working at centers serving groups at risk throughout Rwanda (AIDs centers, centers for the homeless, blind, mentally ill, aged, and orphanages). Following this training, a brief one-day impromptu training for Women’s Foundation Ministries, a group already treating trauma in Rwanda. The group leader invited a team to return with a team the following year to train more members of the organization. |
December 2007: The ATFT Foundation sponsored a team of TFT therapists in Mexico, led by Dr. Alvaro Hernandez, which trained 70 community leaders to help refugees of the flooding in Tabasco, Mexico. |
May 2008: Responding to an invitation to Rwanda from Women’s’ Foundation Ministry, AFT Foundation team leader, Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, led a random controlled study using TFT to treat victims of trauma. A model of treating victims of trauma after large-scale disasters was tested. Thirty-two Rwandan community leaders were trained to use TFT to treat others. One hundred and forty-five genocide survivors over the age of 18 participated in the study. The study was followed by a two-year follow-up using the same measures. Results were published in The international Journal of Emergency Mental Health (13) 2011. |
February 2009: In response to an invitation from Fr. Peter Mubunga Basaliza, Robert Bray, PhD, led an ATFT Trauma Relief team to Uganda. The team trained 358 community leaders in the communities of Kasese and Kasanga in four TFT separate algorithm trainings. Ninety-seven of the trainees were also trained in TFT Causal Diagnosis. The new trainees then treated 447 members of their communities while being supervised by the team. Team members Howard Robson, MD, and Phyllis Robson, RN (both from the U.K.), worked in area hospitals using TFT to relieve the symptoms of malaria and other infectious diseases. |
August 2009: Responding to an invitation from Fr. Dushimiyimana Jean Marie Vianney, an ATFT Trauma Relief team led by Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, responded to a request for training and treatment in the rural area of Byumba, Rwanda. The team successfully attempted to replicate the random controlled study conducted in 2008. Thirty-two Rwandan therapists were trained in TFT, and the newly trained therapists tested and treated 171 survivors of the 1994 genocide under the supervision of the team (results published in the African Journal of Traumatic Stress, 3(1), 24-32.). After the study, the team and new trainees treated 75 non-study members of the community. In a second TFT training, sponsored by USAIDE and Catholic Relief Services, more workers at Serve Centers were trained to use TFT with their vulnerable populations. |
August 2009: Rwandan leaders trained in TFT voted to form the Rwandan Association for Thought Field Therapy, as an affiliate of the Association for Thought Field Therapy. Fr. Dushimiyimana Jean Marie Vianney was elected as Chairperson, Fr. Augustine Nzabinimana as President, Anatole Habimana as Vice President, Prosper Ishimwe and Joseph Ishimwe Uwizeyimana as secretaries, and Juliette Mukayiranga as treasurer. The ATFT Foundation Board unanimously agreed to endeavor to raise funds to keep one Rwandan clinical psychologist as a full-time TFT therapist at the Izere Center. The Foundation also supports several part-time therapists as funds are available. |
February-March 2010: A trauma relief training given by Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, and sponsored by Manal Al-Musallam, was held in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and the proceeds were donated to the ATFT Foundation for their next trauma relief deployment. Attendees planned to use TFT to help traumatized victims of war and others. |
July 2010: Responding to an invitation from Catholic Bishop Servilien Nzakamwita, an ATFT Foundation Trauma Relief tea, led by Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, was deployed to the Byumba area of Rwanda and the previous year’s trainees were provided a refresher course, and a training in TFT Causal Diagnosis. Additionally 33 more community leaders were trained to use TFT. All team members assisted in a third training arranged by Catholic Relief Services for Serve Center leaders who work with vulnerable groups in Rwanda. The group members then accompanied the Serve Center leaders to their various places of work where they helped with difficult cases. |
November 2010: The ATFT Foundation sponsored a trauma relief deployment to Haiti where Howard Robson, MD, Phyllis Robson, RN (both of the U.K.), and Jean Murat Carolle, MD, a Haitian born American, provided a three-day TFT training involving 30 Haitian teachers, nurses, community leaders, and medical and nursing students from throughout Haiti. |
July 2011: ATFT Foundation Trauma Relief Committee Chairman Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, presented at the 2011 Japanese Thought Field Therapy (JATFT) Conference. A main theme was delivering trauma relief to those affected by the March 11th, 2011, earthquake and resulting tsunami. Ideas for trauma relief were exchanged between the sister organizations. |
September-October 2011: Caroline Sakai, Ph.D. led an ATFT Foundation training trip, funded by the ATFT Foundation, to Hawaii for four Rwandan community leaders and TFT trainees. Fr. Jean Marie Vianney, Fr. Augustin Nzabonimana, Rev. Celestin Mitabu, and Prosper Ishimwe. The four Rwandans treated clients at agencies that care for Hawaii’s vulnerable groups and learned how to teach TFT to others so they could return to Rwanda and train more practitioners there and elsewhere in Africa. |
June 2012: Responding to an invitation from Fr. Peter Mubunga Basaliza, Phyllis Robson, RN, led an international team sponsored by the TFT Foundation, the Mats Uldal Humanitarian Foundation, the Rwandan ATFT Foundation, and the TFT Foundation UK to the Kasese District of Uganda. The team trained 40 community leaders in TFT who then used TFT to treat nearly 500 community members. Two hundred and fifty-six of those treated participated in a random, controlled study directed by Howard Robson, MD. This study was completed with a follow-up study in 2011. The team trained another 310 community leaders to use TFT to treat members of their communities. The team introduced TFT to 550 members of a girls’ school in Nsenyi and demonstrated TFT in residential agencies for juvenile offenders and the mentally ill in Kampala. |
October 2013: Celestin Mitabu, with the support of the TFT Foundation, travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to instruct them in Thought Field Therapy. Celestin trained several people in the DRC including some from the Heal Africa Hospital. |
January 2014: A joint US Foundation/UK Foundation/Rwandan delegate team went to Uganda for a follow-up mission in conjunction with Fr. Peter Mubunga Basaliza. The team was comprised of Dr Howard Robson (UK), Phyll Robson (UK), Ngub Nding (France), Alexandra Maillot (France), Oob Nding (Canada), Celestin Mitabu (Rwanda), and Roger Ludwig (USA). Using Nsenyi as their center, they taught people in the surrounding areas of Kasese, Hima and Goma. Half of the participants from the 2012 study returned for the follow-up study. (Results of this study submitted for publication.) |