…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. Continue reading “The Uganda Project 2012”