TIR and Crime Victims:

A conversation with Teresa Descilo MSW, CTS

Teresa Descilo is Director of Executive Director of Victim Services Center (VSC) in Miami, which she founded in 1995. As of April 2002, the center has seen over 3000 victims of crime. I caught up with Ms. Descilo on August 4th, 2003 to find out more about how TIR works with crime victims.

VV: Tell us about your current status and professional background: Teresa: Currently my duties at Victim Services Center include keeping us funded, looking for additional resources to serve our clients, creating relationships that supply resources and help keep us funded, and writing and editing agency grants. I also participate in community committees and boards, sponsor relevant training for the community, train my staff, and look for new ways in which to relieve stress or promote growth for my staff and clients. Finally, I manage the general operation with my work partner, who does most of the day-to-day management. I did my Master's at Florida International University. I got my Bachelors from Barry University and myAssociates from Miami Dade Community College. I received my CTS in 1995 from ATSS. I also took all the Metapsychology training I could find. VV: How and why did Victim Services Center get started, and what are its goals? Teresa: The service got started because I was looking to find out what services were available in Miami for crime victims. In that search I contacted the Florida State Attorney's office and talked to a person who had just come off of a community task force that had determined that the mental health needs of all crime victims weren't being met. I told her about what I do and described TIR to her.  She was a long veteran of victim services, and people were approaching her all the time, asking, "Can we serve crime victims?"  She understood immediately that this approach would be a very good thing for crime victims.  Shortly after that discussion, she persuaded the state attorney to give us office space. We drew up a memorandum of understanding, and about three months after that we started serving crime victims in the State Attorney's office. VV: That's a really quick timeline -- 90 days and up and running; that's great!

"...we are unique in that we actually resolve the impact of trauma for our victims" -- Teresa Descilo

What, if anything, makes crime-related trauma unique or difficult in comparison with, say, an accident or bereavement?

Teresa: I don't know that it does. Sometimes with sexual assault victims one has to spend a little bit more time building trust, but for the most part, it has not been difficult. People are referred here specifically to resolve the impact of trauma, so when they get to us they are usually ready to do the work. Some people simply aren't ready to do the work, and we have to set them up. Sometimes people don't realize that it requires so much work. But when somebody is ready to sit down and engage with you, the trauma seems to roll just as any other trauma does (with TIR).

VV: Are any of these people court-ordered or referred out of something other than their own initiative?

Teresa: We do have court-ordered people now.  We've been treating women from Drug Dependency Court for about three years. This has been my first experience with treating mandated clients, and I'm very happy to say it's gone very well. These women have a big incentive to do the work. Most of them have lost their children and want them back.  In order to get their children back, they have to have a notice from us to the judge that they have participated in this process and resolved the traumas from their past. We've had incredible success in direct Dependency Court mandated victims. The Department of Children and Families have mandated clients to us as well.

There are some clients who self-refer, but at any given time we have referrals from 75 agencies and at least 150 individuals. There are probably 15 people at the Florida State Attorney's Office that refer to us, 20 people at Department of Children and Families, 10 people from the Domestic Violence intake unit, and others from drug treatment centers.  You name it -- we get the referrals.

VV: How does TIR compare with conventional victim therapies.  In other words, what they were doing before you were on the scene?

Teresa: There is no comparison.  There was no resolution of trauma for these people before TIR. I was in a community that was astute enough to realize that the mental health needs of victims weren't being met. Nationally, we're still pretty unique in being a trauma-specific agency whose main purpose is to resolve the impact of trauma. The National Organization of Victim Assistants has just nominated us for a national award. Charles Figley nominated us, noting that we are unique in that we actually resolve the impact of trauma for our victims. Trauma resolution is still not happening on a national basis; it's still a huge void in terms of services needing to be delivered. For a year, I was out training people in a different state almost every month, and they would love to have a comparable service to what we have here, but it just doesn't exist elsewhere.

"There is no comparison, there was no resolution of trauma for these people before TIR" -- Teresa Descilo

VV: Sounds like there's an opportunity to propagate the program in other states.

Teresa: Yes, there is a great opportunity.

VV: How good are the long term results on crime victims?

Teresa: I have never had the funding to do a longitudinal study, so predicting outcome is purely anecdotal at this point. Very seldom, however, do clients come back once they have completed services with us. Every so often a client does return because something else comes up, or somebody, like an ex-husband, gets let out of jail or comes after them in some way, so they have a whole new fear issue. The only thing I have to go on is that people generally don't come back to us once they've been completed. We pre- and post- test our clients; post-testing indicates that they no longer have the symptoms that are associated with PTSD. Our clients reach levels where they no longer have clinical anxiety or depression, and they no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for would give them PTSD.  This condition appears to be stable.

VV: You mentioned you are getting a lot of referrals from other agencies. Do many clients have the ability to pay for services, or do they get some assistance?

Teresa: No, I am happy to say our services  are free. This has become a philosophic stance for me: if you're an alleged perpetrator of a crime, you're guaranteed an attorney in our country, but if you're a victim you're guaranteed absolutely nothing. So the very least a crime victim should receive is someone to help her put her life back together, at least to a level of functioning that existed before the crime.

The fact that we are supported by grants is sort of a mixed blessing because it forces us to live in a state of awareness of our impermanence -- we never know when funding will get yanked. We've been grant-driven now for 6½ years now and for 1½ years we worked for free. We have major support from many different grants.

VV: Well, that sounds like success to me!

Teresa: But it could all end tomorrow; it's the nature of the non-profit game -- what are you gonna do?

VV: How well does TIR fit within the realm of conventional social work practices? Teresa: It's a total fit, because social work practice is basically a very client-centered person and environment practice. For me there's no dissonance at all. I started off doing my undergraduate in psychology, but I realized I couldn't stay in that field because of the philosophic difference in the way one views and treats a client. As with TIR, social work is not a medical-model practice. We just look at the entire client -- what is going on here, what does this person need, what are all the things contributing to what is going on?  Social work practice does not pathologize people, either.

"if you're an alleged perpetrator of a crime, you're guaranteed an attorney in our country, but if you're a victim you're guaranteed absolutely nothing." -- Teresa Descilo

VV: There's often a cycle of violence of crime. Do you ever find yourself dealing with the perpetrators?

Teresa: Not as often; we really are set up for victims. Some of the women that Drug Dependency Court sends us have become perpetrators to a certain extent. We have a Department of Juvenile Justice grant for at-risk youth, and some of them have demonstrated some really borderline behaviors. For the most part, though, we are simply not treating perpetrators at this time.

VV: How has the community received Victim Services Center?  Do you get support or recognition?

Teresa: Yes.  Judging by all the referral sources we have, we are recognized as unique. For a while, at first, we we're the weird ones on the block; we were doing something different. We still are very different. But after eight years and all the successes we've had, it doesn't matter how weird we are to many people, because obviously what we are doing is working. So there has been a great deal of acceptance, wonderful community support.  In fact we were also written into a federal grant for helping victims of human trafficking, victims of modern-day slavery. That grant provides that this agency will provide Traumatic Incident Reduction as the main approach to handling trauma, along with acupuncture and massage.

VV: I saw in your mission statement that education is part of your platform. What other techniques do you use in conjunction with TIR?

Teresa: We mostly use the Metapsychology model and techniques that come under that heading. We also have some excellent psychosocial groups: educational groups that teach people about domestic violence and the impact of trauma and trauma bonding, child empowerment groups, and a court-support group. But my staff clinicians are trained in EMDR which we will use on occasion; it's also very effective. We also use Thought Field Therapy (TFT) as a coping technique.

VV: Can you tell me about your intake procedure and how you handle people who clearly aren't ready for TIR?

Teresa: After we've taken a history on somebody, if we determine that they are not ready for TIR, we do things that you would associate with Life Stress Reduction. I have developed a whole protocol for addressing trauma bonding, which is another huge problem that domestic violence victims have -- being bonded to their abusers.  This protocol is also very good for building ego strength, which is what people need to do when they are not quite able to face trauma. So we'll do Recalls, Unblocking -- all those kinds of things to set people up. [Ed. Note: the procedures Teresa is referring to are taught in the two workshops after TIRW level one: TIR Expanded Applications and Case Planning for TIR and Life Stress Reduction].

VV: Your approach to trauma bonding is a Metapsychology derived technique?  Have you considered publishing it?

Teresa: I really should get on publishing it, I've been sitting on it for a while.

VV: Tell me about what possibilities you see for the future of Trauma Victim Services?

Teresa: I see us becoming an agency that treats all population types that have been traumatized -- we are already moving in that direction. We willhave our Victim Services Program, our At-Risk Youth Program, our program for Drug Dependency Court mothers, a program for refugees, human trafficking, and victims of torture, a program for those who've been through an emergency room, another program for those who have been through car accidents, natural disasters or who can't shake off the trauma of a death. Our "Relax Miami" campaign will be a household name, since everyone that works in a high-stress job will have taken the course. We willalso be a national training site for other cities that desire a similar center of their own. Wow, how grandiose!  But you never know!

Comments from Clients

"Yes, I have become more confident in my abilities to care for myself and my children. I realize that problems that would have left me paralyzed with fear before, I can face up to. I have learned to take things one day at a time. I know that I am a capable person and hope to never let someone else have such complete, utter control of my life again just because I am scared to be alone. It was difficult to go through all the painful memories: but somehow having done that has filled me with strength. I have great confidence in your program and especially in my therapist [Rose's] application of your theories. I hope I can progress to the point where someday I can help other people, victims of domestic violence, overcome the terrible fear of having to call for themselves and their loved ones. Thank you."

"When I first came here, I was definitely traumatized by the sexual abuse I went through with my father. I could not talk, think, whisper, or breathe about it without feeling sad, crying, and disappointed, anxiety for my children, believing that someone might hurt them -- feelings that I know now were keeping me from moving forward in life. Now I feel free, like I've never felt before in my life. I'm calm, cool and collected. I can talk about the sexual abuse without any emotional attachment and the memory is nothing more than just another time from my past. Just like when I first learned to ride a bike is a memory from my past. They are just like other memories, just points in time and space. I feel great. And I feel that nothing can hinder my progression in a positive direction except for normal obstacles we all encounter. And even those seem like nothing. I feel free. Thank you."

Male - recovering addict

"When I first started coming to Victim Services, I was feeling very depressed and had a lot of guilt and shame, always thinking about my past, being molested and physically abused. Today I feel good about myself. Rene has really helped me a lot through this. I don't dwell or think about my past. I have motivated myself into doing a lot of things for myself and children. I've learned to love myself more. My anger has calmed down a lot along with my attitude and the way I used to see things. I thank God that I was court ordered to attend Victim Services because its really helped me a lot. I have learned to deal with life without physical abuse and drug abuse."

After 10 hours of service

Acknowledgments