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Ending the story
SAID ALOUD
Ending the story
Aim. To end the story in a good way.
Trainer. We now have one last exercise to do together. How do you think the story ends?
PART II: THE TRAINING
At last, the time came for the Butterfly Woman to visit her family. She was very nervous and had a hard time concentrating. Together with the other woman from her village, she had worked hard to recall good memories from the village, so the bad ones were not so strong.
The helper warned her that the village and its surroundings would be very triggering. She said:“ Use everything you have learned about grounding. Once you are grounded, there is one more strategy that can be of great benefit. That is: actively see how the present moment differs from when the trauma occurred. You know that trauma-reminders trigger trauma-reactions. If the river starts to trigger a trauma-reaction, actively try to see how the river now is different from the river then, by examining it closely, and by telling yourself that it is now peaceful, the soldiers have gone, and so on. When you actively orient yourself and see that it is safe, this will help you to see what has changed in the village, and you will be able to separate past from present. You will give yourself a new experience that will soon become a good new memory, strengthening you and your connection with the present and sending past memory back to the past. This will also tell you that the danger is over. When you detect differences, you can say them out loud to yourself.”
The Butterfly Woman felt prepared to go back to the village to meet her husband and children. With a helper, she decided to go.
Exercise 8. Ending the Story.( 15 minutes in small groups.)
EXERCISE
Form small groups to discuss how the story ends. Consider the questions on the flip chart.
• What did the Butterfly Woman bring to“ ground herself” when she returned to her village?
• How did she help herself to stay connected to the present moment?
• What did the helper do to support her?
• How did she feel when she saw the river that she loved, where she had been raped?
• How did she feel when she saw her children and her husband?
• How did she react?
• How did her children react?
• How did her husband react?
• How did her husband’ s relatives react?
• What did other people in the community do to help her when she returned?
• Could the Woman connect with other members of the community? With whom? How does the story end?
The Trainer will ask you to come back into plenary and write up your thoughts.