In The Spotlight: Ligia Barascout de Piedra Santa
By Marilyn Luber, Ph.D.
March 2006
What is it that motivates us to champion a cause? Is it something that we are
born with? Is it the urgency that comes from something that has happened to us
when we are out in the world? Or, is it an integration of the two? In the case
of Guatemalan trainer, Ligia Barascout de Piedra Santa, as in the nature-nurture
controversy in general, we may never know for sure.
Ligia was born in Guatemala to two native Guatemalans with roots in the Spanish
and French cultures. The youngest of three, she was raised in the capital of Guatemala,
Guatemala City, during the time of their 35-year-old Civil War. Although the capital
was sheltered from the conflagrations that were occurring throughout the interior
of the country, Ligia was aware of the upheavals around her, the ever-present
feeling of danger and the toll that war took on her countrymen and women. Perhaps,
it was here that her passion to help people began. Or, perhaps, it was the spiritual
calling that she felt through her childhood and adolescence through her “special
connection with God and a big commitment to help others”. We may never know specifically
what it was, but what we do know is that her commitment to understanding diversity
and her deep level of compassion for her fellow human beings has had an enormous
impact on those around her.
Ligia learned about diversity during her schooling. She attended the American
School of Guatemala from first to tenth grades, which exposed her to a greater
number of cultures than her own and the opportunity to learn English, as well
as her own Spanish. Originally, she aspired to be a teacher. In Guatemala, it
is possible to become a teacher without going on for an advanced degree. Ligia
earned a special degree in Elementary School teaching while she was still in high
school. She graduated in 1967. In 1968, she taught at the Instituto de la
Asuncion, an urban primary school. There, she discovered that she was interested
in Psychology and enjoyed the inquiring minds of older students, so she went to
the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City to become a High School teacher
with a specialty in Psychology. However, her interest in Psychology grew and she
decided that she wanted to become a Psychologist. At this point, her father –
a revolutionary in his own right during the 1944 revolution - raised objections,
“People who are Psychologists are crazy!” he told her. Nonetheless, his passion
for his own beliefs was an early influence in her life, and she decided to pursue
a degree in Psychology, also at the University of San Carlos. She was awarded
her degree in 1975.
At the same time, she got married and one year before she graduated had the first
of her two children, a daughter. As she was interested in being close to her child,
she found ways to work through the office she had set up in her home. One of her
jobs was writing for a newspaper called “Chiquirin” (a small child), where she
wrote a column called “Problemotas”. For her column, Ligia imagined a child was
writing to her for help and then wrote answers. After the column ran for awhile,
she began to receive real letters from children and then answered them. She did
this for about 3-4 years. Also, at this time, she gave trainings for elementary
school teachers.
She became more involved in Organizational Psychology doing qualitative research
with focus groups and motivational groups. Through this work she was able to interview
people in her own country, Nicaragua and Central America. As she traveled, she
saw the effects of poverty and trauma. As a woman from an upper middle class community,
she had never seen such circumstances, and she was changed by her experiences.
During the early years of her career, she did qualitative market investigations
throughout all of Central America for companies such as Data S.A., Generis Latina,
Marketing Asociados, and Soporte S.A. Her interest in social economics and politics
led her to do qualitative investigations for ASIES. Countless private companies
have had the benefit of her teaching for personnel motivation, Transactional Analysis
and Group Dynamics, such as Paiz, S.A. (the largest chain of supermarkets in Guatemala),
Tabacalera Centroamericana, and many workshops for teachers.
At the same time, Ligia continued her interest in clinical work. In 1996, the
signing of the peace treaty? between the guerrillas and the army occurred.
This heralded a new chapter in the history of Guatemala. At this time, she decided
on a new commitment to her work as a Clinical Psychologist and her work with clients.
Equipped with her knowledge of the brutality that the people had endured and her
clinical understanding of trauma, Ligia joined together with a group of people
who had heard of EMDR. They bought Francine Shapiro’s text and studied it, and
then contacted Francine, asking her to send a trainer to teach clinicians EMDR.
At first, the committee was headed by Rigoberto Flores, a businessman whose brother
was killed during the Civil War. Later, he left Guatemala and Ligia was in charge
of continuing the work with her team that included Maria Elena Bonatti, Maria
Del Carmen Castillo and Elvira Ariano.
John Hartung and Michael Galvin arrived in 1997. John’s training in the Peace
Corps in Central America, his work as a university professor, and his ability
as a trainer has been essential to the way he has gone about building the Central
and South American team. Michael also took the time and effort to prepare
Ligia to be a Facilitator for the EMDR Institute.
Through the amazing work of this Central and South American team the interest
in EMDR has grown throughout the Latin American communities. In 1998, Ligia went
with John to Nicaragua. Here, Barbara Zelwer did an excellent job organizing and
working with colleagues. Sadly, since Barbara’s death 2 years ago, the work in
Nicaragua has decreased. However, the Latin American team is looking into
ways to fill the large gap left by Barbara’s death.
At the beginning of the millennium, there was a landslide in Venezuela that covered
a number of villages and many people died. The team was invited to the Catholic
University Andres Bello to train clinicians to respond to this crisis. In the
year 2001, there was an earthquake in El Salvador and Dr. Reginaldo Hernandez
organized the EMDR trainings there. He died two years ago after doing an excellent
job. Atzimba de Vides (trainer), Sonia Silvia de Hernandez (Reginaldo’s wife and
facilitator), and Stella de Soundy and Consuelo Zamora who are preparing to be
facilitators have continued his work. Ligia helped coordinate the work and taught
the bridge training between Part 1 and 2 trainings there.
This same Latin American team got together and went to a number of places, such
as Mexico and Ecuador. In the year 2004, they went to Costa Rica and Peru. By
this time, she had become a Part 1 trainer and did these trainings with Maria
Elena Aduriz. John Hartung did the Part 2 trainings.
In 2005, Ligia was approved to teach Part 2 trainings. By December 2005, her skill
level was considered so good that she was asked to be a trainer of Latin American
trainers by Francine Shapiro. Five Latin American Trainers had the skill to be
considered a “Trainer of Trainers”: Ignacio Jarero, Lucy Artigas, Esly Carvalho
and Maria Elena Aduriz.
The goal in Latin America – and with all countries- is that each country become
autonomous from the EMDR Institute and have their own Trainers and Facilitators,
so that participants can be taught in their native language. Ligia has her
own team in Guatemala that includes the Facilitators, Guisela Carcamo and Anamargarita
de Orellana; and a Facilitator in training, Karina Schloesser. They have
trained more than 160 psychologists.
At the beginning of the peace in 1996, she and her friends began to think about
how to handle the psychological ravages of war. Because this was a civil war,
they knew that there would be many difficulties with families because of the strife.
They were aware that for many of the men, the only skills they had available to
them was their knowledge of how to fight. After several generations of war, the
men had few to no skills to provide for peacetime necessities. Many of the men
still kept their weapons, and as a result, there was an increase in personal assaults,
resulting in many civilians with PTSD. One of the hardest hit communities during
the Civil War was the Mayan community, as many of them disappeared and/or died.
There are about 20 different Mayan languages and communities and most Mayans do
not trust outsiders. This included Ligia who was not born to their tradition.
About 4 years ago, Ligia worked with a 16 year old young woman who had been molested
by her stepfather. She was referred to her by a Psychologist in the office of
the government that deals with survivors of abuse whom she had trained to do EMDR.
This case was well publicized in Guatemala as the stepfather was a commandant
for the guerrillas. The accusation of this young woman was an enormous scandal.
Despite the danger to herself and her family, Ligia decided to testify at the
trial because, she said, “I think it was what I should do”. Her testimony resulted
in his conviction, which was –for the times- astounding in Guatemala. By that
time, Ligia had talked about the way she had found the young woman and gave the
jury a course on trauma and how it could be healed. They trusted her word
and sent this man to jail. As a result of this well-publicized case, the mother
of the teenager,who was a part of the guerrilla movement and knew many Mayan women,
told them about what happened with her daughter and how Ligia had helped.
Subsequently, some of the Mayan women have started to come in for therapy and
are committed to their own healing.
Ligia has been in charge of the work in Central America. Unfortunately, there
is no funding for the workshops. She has trained Facilitators in El Salvador.
Programs in El Salvador in 2001 were done through a humanitarian program in which
the participants pay for the Trainers and Facilitators bed and board. Currently,
she is beginning to train a team in Costa Rica. Here, the programs are done at
the request of clinicians who pay for the training. For Honduras,
she is hoping to find a good connection through whom she can introduce EMDR to
the professional community. Unfortunately, as yet, no one has come forward.
Ligia is hoping to train more Facilitators and Trainers because –ever realistic
– she wants to make sure that there are people to carry on the work of EMDR. Her
personal goal is “to have a committed group of people who love the method and
go on with the work. I will be happy if I can do that in Central America”.
Ligia has been active in her professional organizations. She has been a member
of the School of Humanities of Guatemala since 1976. She founded the Reforma Clinic
Center in 1976. Since 1997, she has been the founder and Consultant of International
Psychological Services for Asesorias Internacionales, S.A. – ASI S.A. From 1999
to 2003, Ligia was one of the Founders and President of the Board of Directors
for Advanced Psychotherapies (PSIAVANZA). She has been the Regional Representative
for Latin America for the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology since
2002. As well as being an EMDR trainer, Ligia is an Energy Psychology Trainer
and a Seemorg Matrix Trainer for Latin America.
Her words to the EMDR community are as follows:
“I love the method and whenever I go and do trainings I try to honor Francine’s
work, because I think it is a privilege for me to do it. I think that EMDR is
the hope for people, because we now know healing is possible. We would like funding
to do more work”.
Ligia was married for 28 years and was separated 4 years ago. She has a 31-year-old
daughter who is an Industrial Engineer and a 28-year old son who graduated in
Printing Management and works with his father in his printing company. She likes
to do Yoga and Pilates and enjoys art, museums and exhibitions. She is an avid
reader and noted that she is a “permanent” student.
Ligia Barascout de Piedra Santa is a compassionate, strong, and principled woman
who has brought the chance of healing the wounds to the Guatemalan people
and the people of those countries around her. The more I listen to the stories
of our extraordinary colleagues, like Ligia’s, the more convinced I am of how
lucky we are to be part of this ever-growing EMDR community.
Gayla Turner
Associate Director
EMDR International Association
5806 Mesa Drive, Suite 360
Austin, Tx 78731-3785
Toll Free: (866) 451-5200 (U.S. Only)
Tel: (512) 451-5200 Fax: (512) 451-5256
For more information about EMDR and EMDR International Association , visit
our website at www.emdria.org