Peer Support

PEER SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION FROM VICTIMS AND EX-COMBATANTS TO SURVIVORS AND CITIZENS A Training Program for Peer Support Group Leaders Municipality of San Francisco, Department of Antioquia Republic of Colombia 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. 8 MODULE 1: BUILDING TRUST AND ACKNOWLEDGING OTHERS....................................... 10 MODULE 2: SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT AND IMPACT OF THE WAR ON THE POPULATION ............................................................................................................................... 29 MODULE 3: EMOTIONAL FIRST AID AND COMMUNICATION (ACTIVE LISTENING) ....... 62 MODULE 4: TRAUMA AND PEER SUPPORT, INDIVIDUALLY ............................................... 91 MODULE 5: PREPARING FOR THE ABRAZOS: PEER SUPPORT GROUPS AND THE PEER SUPPORT RELATIONSHIP ........................................................................................................ 120 MODULE 6: GRIEF, IDENTIFICATION OF ITS STAGES AND ELABORATION OF PAIN ... 156 MODULE 7: FEAR AND CONFRONTING FEAR ...................................................................... 193 MODULE 8: RAGE, ANGER AND FORGIVENESS ................................................................... 216 MODULE 9: FORGIVENESS, COMPASSION AND EMPATHY FOR THE OFFENDER ........ 232 MODULE 10: PEER SUPPORT IN PRACTICE 2 ...................................................................... 253 MODULE 11: TRUTH ................................................................................................................. 287 MODULE 12: JUSTICE ............................................................................................................... 311 MODULE 13: MUNICIPALITY AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY ................................................... 330 MODULE 14: RECONCILIATION: LET’S MAKE A PACT ....................................................... 343 MODULE 15: MEMORY AND RESTITUTION........................................................................... 361 2 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION MODULE 1: Building Trust and Acknowledging Others • Getting to know one another we build an environment of basic trust • We learn about the project and the organizations behind the project MODULE 2: Sociopolitical Context and Impact of the War on the Population • A study of the sociopolitical situation in and surrounding our municipality during the times of war will help us as we recall how we felt during this time • We identify the affects of the war on ourselves and on the different groups in the community: the elderly, adults, youths and children MODULE 3: Emotional First Aid and Communication (Active Listening) • We identify the central elements in the process of the psychosocial support program • We recognize the appropriate emotional first-aid responses to be provided to those affected by the war • We talk about communication skills and how we can become active listeners • We deliberate and consider the selection criteria for the program‘s target groups and survivor beneficiaries MODULE 4: Trauma and Peer Support, Individually • We identify the nature of psychological trauma and describe common emotional and intellectual responses to trauma • We define trauma, stress, resistance, peer support, empowerment and recovery • We define what it is we are trying to achieve as participants of a peer support group and identify the most appropriate skills, abilities, and knowledge required for our work MODULE 5: Preparing For the Abrazos: Peer Support Groups and the Peer Support Relationship • We examine the objectives and methods of the Peer Support Group. • We practice conceptual skills and methodologies in order to act as caring Readers of the support groups and to provide psychological support for survivors of the war. • We learn how to conduct an ―Embrace‖, first taking into account the content, methodologies and funding MODULE 6: Grief: Identification of its Stages and Elaboration of Pain • Working in groups, we practice conceptual and methodological skills in dealing with pain • We examine the process of grief through recalling our life experiences 3 • We identify the diverse stages of grief and identify ways to intervene to ease their onset • We learn about how to follow up the ―embraces‖ as a continuing process and how best to prepare ourselves for the next one MODULE 7: Fear and Confronting Fear • We recognize the many different ways a person can react when confronted by threatening situations • We identify when certain reactions are useful and when they become obstacles • We talk about the different ways to confront fear and threatening situations MODULE 8: Rage, Anger and Forgiveness • We study the types of reactions and emotional conduct associated with conflict • We learn to recognize our own emotions, especially anger, and learn how to deal with them in our everyday lives • We explore the methodology used in the Fundación para la Reconciliación’s Schools of Forgiveness and Reconciliation MODULE 9: Forgiveness, Compassion and Empathy for the Offender • We explore the different possible perspectives of the offense • We reflect on the value and importance of forgiveness MODULE 10: Peer Support in Practice 2 • We learn about how to use the Individual Recovery Action Plan (IRAP) to help a survivor develop a plan for the next 12 months of her/his life • We learn about how to link and refer survivors to services, support agencies, available local institutions and how to help survivors obtain technical help to solve their problems • We learn about how to help survivors and their families manage crisis situations MODULE 11: Truth • We evaluate multiple hypothetic versions of the same event and learn about how they could be interpreted as more or less valid depending on one‘s perspective • We learn about the importance of communication and dialogue as fundamental elements in the construction of truth • We recognize the therapeutic value of truth and facilitating a new relationship with the object of our forgiveness • We discuss the necessity of creating new narratives to overcome the distance generated by past offenses MODULE 12: Justice • We reflect on the concepts of justice and impunity, and about the criteria used for applying sanctions 4 • We talk about the concept of restoration as an element expected of justice MODULE 13: Municipality and Local Democracy • We examine the direct relationship between our everyday needs (rights) and the municipality, the entity charged with satisfying basic needs • We define the municipality, how it functions, its abilities and limitations, as well as the rights we can claim from it MODULE 14: Reconciliation • We analyze the different types of reconciliation that can establish a stable emotional state for a hypothetical meeting with our offender • We create and practice a draft version of a pact and practice an imaginary dialogue with our offender MODULE 15: Memory and Restitution • We analyze the effect that memory has on trauma recovery and how memories can controlled and ―recreated‖ • We discuss the concept of restitution as an element required by justice • Closing and Evaluation of the Training Process 5 PEER SUPPORT TO TRANSFORM VICTIMS AND EX-COMBATANTS INTO SURVIVORS AND CITIZENS PASOS Y ABRAZOS TRAINING PROGRAM FOR PEER SUPPORT WORKERS Municipality of San Francisco INTRODUCTION “Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself.” ~ Thomas Jefferson This manual is the product of many years of hard work among traumatized survivors in Colombia and several other war-affected nations. If the content is in any way valid and useful, first thanks should go to the many survivors who, through their own inner resilience, found the strength to offer their support to other survivors who still struggled with pain, bitterness and grief. In the modern age have we come to believe that only a professional can provide the necessary treatment for a traumatic experience, and we dismiss our own natural resilience as insufficient. But peer support is an act of kindness as old as trauma itself, and recently we have come to appreciate its power and importance as a therapeutic method which can be used by anyone. On battlefields and refugee camps, burnt-out towns and bullet-riddled villages, people have always come together to help each other, and always will. The Collaboration and the Partners Thanks to careful observation and research by psychologist Beatriz Montoya, who spent many years counseling survivors of war-related violence in the Department of Antioquia in central Colombia, the methodology of this manual was first designed and tested. Since 1991 Beatriz has worked with La Cooperación para la Conciudadania, a Colombian NGO devoted to promoting the recovery and the rights of survivors in Colombia. Starting in 2001 Conciudadania began using a unique psychosocial recovery approach called ‗Pasos y Abrazos‘, a series of survivor group meetings, some of them intended to cultivate an intellectual understanding of the causes of psychological trauma (pasos), and some related to expression of emotions intended to relieve unresolved grief (abrazos). This approach was applied to survivors of relatively recent traumatic events, primarily women who had lost loved ones or who had witnessed atrocities. Techniques in leading

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