52 Day 2. Life is turned upside down( continued)
TO THE TRAINER
PART II: THE TRAINING
KEY POINT
The story illustrates
• How the Butterfly Woman tries to distance herself.
• Her avoidance and fear reactions after the traumatic event.
TEACHING INSTRUCTION.
Explain to the participants that when they tell this story to survivors, they should never include horrible details of the traumatic event. This is because the details of the rape may waken traumamemories. If this occurs, a victimised woman will not be able to listen any more. She will re-live her own experience and lose the feeling of safety that she had when she sat with you. In this manual we have included the horrible details from the traumatic event to illustrate how these events affect survivors. Helpers need to know these details as helpers, but survivors are so easily triggered that they need to be protected from such details.
Helpers should therefore speak of the rape in indirect terms, or use a term that the survivor agrees will be tolerable for her.
If they do so, the survivor will feel safer, will trust the helper, and will also feel strengthened, because she will understand that her own reactions and symptoms are to be expected. Women feel this way when terrible things happen to them. She may arrive at the knowledge that her responses were normal and natural. It is what was done to her that was insane and abnormal!
EXERCISE
Exercise 6. Exploring different trauma reactions.
Explain that the different ways of reacting to traumas are natural and are automatic physiological reactions. Explain that these reactions may be understood as your body telling you how to survive. In the exercise, encourage the participants to experience the different kinds of reaction, to get a sensation of what these different‘ states’ feel like. Demonstrate them yourself, as well as you can.
Share these ideas and discuss them with the participants before starting the next exercise, in which the helpers familiarise themselves with the story of the Butterfly Woman by rehearsing it with each other.
TEACHING INSTRUCTION.
After the exercise, take a short break. Let the participants stretch and walk around a little. Before the session starts again, allow time for a grounding and breathing exercise, to get the group back on track.
BREAK 15-20 MINUTES.