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THE UNIVERSITY OF HARLEY KANSAS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008
Artist offers survivors peace through hypnotherapy
Art professor volunteers time, uses hypnosis to ease psychological pain of trauma victims
BY BRANDY ENTSMINGER
bentsminger@kansan.com
Tanya Hartman teaches art at the University of Kansas during the week. On weekends she uses hypnosis to help war survivors.
Hartman, an associate professor of art, volunteers at the St. Louis Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma. She said she first became interested in working at the center because her grandparents were German refugees during World War II.
"I've always felt a fascination and a kinship with anybody who has survived a political upheaval," Hartman said. "I thought it would be interesting to work with survivors of current conflict."
Hartman became certified in hypnosis last fall and started volunteering at the center this spring. Since then, she has worked with clients from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Iran. She said she had to use translators with many of the clients.
Kristin Bulin, executive director of the St. Louis Center, said many of the clients were refugees and suffered from anxiety, fear and flashbacks.
Although the center uses a variety of techniques to help clients with post-traumatic stress and chronic pain, Hartman is the first hypnotist to volunteer there.
"With her skills she can have them be relaxed enough to be in a peaceful place and guide them through some very painful things," Bulin said.
Hartman said hypnotism was an attempt to disengage the conscious mind and speak directly to the unconscious mind. She said she used the repetition of calming words and phrases to engage the clients in guided imagery.
"It's like you create a waking dream for them," Hartman said.
Hartman said she created scripts for guided imagery between visits to
"I've always felt a fascination and a kinship with anybody who has survived a political upheaval. I thought it would be interesting to work with survivors of current conflict."
TANYA HARTMAN Associate professor of art
the center. She said the scripts had to be unique for each client because an image that created peace for one could create terror for another.
Linda Gentry, owner and founder of the Missouri Institute of Hypnotherapy, trained Hartman at the Midwest Center for Hypnotherapy in Warrensburg, Mo.
Gentry said dealing with emotions from a traumatic experience could be like being surrounded by helium balloons and trying to push them down. She said hypnotherapy helped people set aside emotions and reach understanding and forgiveness.
"When they deal with it, they're done with it," Gentry said.
Hartman said one of the most challenging parts of working at the center was hearing the stories and seeing the level of psychological suffering many of the clients were experiencing.
"I think sometimes you can't fix it," Hartman said. "You can only offer a momentary moment of peace."
Hartman said another challenge was the five-hour commute by car and train to St. Louis, but said she always left the center feeling joyful.
"With art it's so hard to know if you've done anything of value, but this is tangible," Hartman said.
One of the issues Hartman said she tried to address both in her work as a hypnotist and her work as an artist was how people handled collective political experiences and unheavals in their daily lives.
Although Hartman grew up in New York, she said the summers and holidays she spent with her grandparents, who had relocated to Cuernavaca, Mexico, were an inspiration for much of her work.
"My artwork has always tried to address nostalgia for a lost homeland and the experience of displacement, cultural displacement," Hartman said
Hartman said she hoped to create a piece based on her work at the center, but was just treating the clients for now.
"She's one of the most exceptional people I have trained in hypnosis." Gentry said. "She's going to help a lot of people."
Edited by Becka Cremer
Tanya Hartman, associate professor of art, poses for a portrait in her art studio in the Art and Design building. Hartman received her certification for hypnotherapy from the Midwest Institute of Hypnotherapy in Missouri) and volunteers as a hypnototherapist at the St. Louis Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
IRAQ WAR
Negotiators finish draft withdrawal agreement
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have finished work on a draft security agreement that would see all American troops leave Iraqi cities by June 30 and the rest of the country by the end of 2011, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
The deal still needs approval by both governments — and some members of Iraq's Cabinet oppose some of its provisions.
An Iraqi official who was involved in the protracted negotiations said the latest draft was completed last week and sent to the two governments.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said talks with the Iraqis were ongoing and "we are trying to bring the agreement to a close".
The official said a compromise had been worked out on the contentious issue of immunity for American troops from prosecution under Iraqi law, but he did not give details.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.
While Iraqi negotiators signed off on the draft, another official close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the country's political leadership objected to parts of the text, including the immunity provision.
"There are different points of view," he said. "We have given ours. The other side has given theirs."
He would not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A third senior Iraqi official said al-Maliki himself had gone through the text personally and made notes with objections to some undisclosed points. He also spoke on condition of anonymity.
U. S. officials recently reported progress on the timeline for troop
withdrawals but said the immunity issue was a snag.
The security deal is to govern the status of the more than 140,000-strong U.S. military force after the U.N. Security Council mandate for its mission expires at the end of this year.
Iraq's Cabinet must sign off on the deal and then refer it to parliament for final approval. The Shiite-led government has been pressing for some sort of timeline for the departure of U.S. troops, saying that is essential to win legislators' approval.
The decision to refer the agreement to parliament followed demands by the country's most powerful Shlite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, that any formula to keep U.S. troops on Iraqi soil — even for a limited period — must have broad political support.
President Bush had long refused to accept any timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. Last month, however, he and al-Maliki agreed to set a "general time horizon" for ending the U.S. mission.
As the talks dragged on, American officials said the Bush administration was losing patience with the Iraqis. Bush stood by al-Maliki when Washington's Sunni Arab allies were privately urging he be replaced because of the government's ties to Shiite-dominated Iran and Shiite militia attacks on Iraqi Sunnis.
Talks were supposed to have ended by the end of July but differences over immunity and other issues dragged out the process.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and al-Maliki had a long and "very difficult" phone conversation about the situation early this month during which she pressed the Iraqi leader for more flexibility, particularly on immunity, one U.S. senior official said at the time.
"The sovereignty issue is very big for the Iraqis and we understand that. But we are losing patience," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The process needs to get moving and get moving quickly."
Bush's shift to a timeline was seen as a move to speed agreement on the security pact.
The official could not say how long the call lasted but said it was "not brief" and described it as "tense at times".
Iraq's position in the talks hardened after a series of Iraqi military successes against Shite and Sunni extremists in Basra, Baghdad, Mosul and other major cities and after the rise in world oil prices flooded the country with petrodollars.
MINK LAW DAY 2008
Missouri Iowa
U. S. soldiers walk past as a displaced Iraqi family returns to its home in the Jihad area of west Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday.
Nebraska Kansas
Karim Kadim/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, September 4, 2008
3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Overland Park Convention Center
6000 College Boulevard Overland Park, Kansas
OPCC directions at http://www.opconventioncenter.com
MINK Law Day provides prospective law students with an opportunity to speak with law school representatives from around the country. If you are interested in attending law school, come to learn what law schools are looking for in applicants. Attendance is free. Informational break out sessions will be held at 4:00,5:00,and 6:00 p.m.with topics on Admissions, Scholarships and Financial Aid Career Opportunities and the Student Perspective.
Pre-Register at http://law.missouri.edu/mink/
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