By JENNIFER LATSON
OLYMPIA – Phuntsok Tsering usually spends his days helping Tibetan torture victims find some peace in their new lives in India.
For the past four months, Tsering has been living in Olympia, learning new strategies from local practitioners to help do his job better.
The 29-year-old studied here with the Olympia-based International Trauma Treatment Program, founded by psychologist John Van Eenwyk.
Tsering and fellow student Tashi Youdon, a nurse in a Tibetan refugee settlement in southern India, graduated from the program Sunday night in a ceremony at the Santosh restaurant in downtown Olympia. They return to India on Wednesday.
“I have mixed emotions,” said Tsering. “It’s going to be sad to leave Olympia. But I’m excited to see my friends and family.”
He will use the skills he learned from the 14 or so institutions and instructors the trauma program comprises back in Dharamsala, where he is a social worker helping about 400 exiled Tibetans.
“All the victims are mentally and physically tortured by the Chinese. They have been put in prison for 30, 35 years,” said Tsering, a Tibetan who immigrated to India at age 6.
Van Eenwyk founded the trauma treatment program in 1999, when he invited a Sri Lankan nun to study in Olympia with the group of treatment providers.
“It evolved out of my work overseas consulting with practitioners in war zones on how to treat torture survivors,” Van Eenwyk said. “We kept getting interrupted by the wars, so we decided to bring them here.”
The group now offers instruction in how psychology, massage, writing and art therapy can help treat trauma.
“I learned different ways to heal people,” Tsering explained. “It’s been for my personal development also.”
This is Tsering’s first trip to the United States. The same is true for Youdon, a 34-year-old who treats terminally ill Tibetans in a tiny hospital in a little town.
“My parents’ generation, they are in India because the Chinese told them to leave the country,” Youdon said. “They are separated from their culture, and their only wish is to die in Tibet.”
About 50 people attended the pair’s graduation ceremony: their teachers, friends, and host families.
Robin Landsong, a licensed massage practitioner, taught the Tibetans how to do craniosacral therapy, which calms the nervous system and can relieve the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
She also took them to the beach and the zoo.
“Phuntsok had never been to the beach,” Landsong said.
Linda Strever, training manager for the Dispute Resolution Center, led them through the center’s 40-hour training course.
“I was so amazed by how hard they worked,” said Strever, adding they had to overcome a language barrier but were not intimidated by being in a big group, role-playing and taking on complicated course work.
“I was humbled by their dedication and their openness to trying out all the skills. It was very inspiring,” Strever said.
The goal of the program, which has brought a total of seven international trauma care providers to Olympia since 1999, is to work for the end of torture, said Van Eenwyk.
Tsering was hopeful that could be accomplished.
“We are really looking forward to eliminating torture together,” Tsering said, speaking for himself and Youdon. “I think we can do that.”
