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Recovery skills 1
SAID ALOUD
Recovery skills 1
Aim. To learn how to reconnect to the present moment through our senses.
Trainer. We will continue the story of the Butterfly Woman, and use it to develop some practical exercises that can assist recovery.
PART II: THE TRAINING
The Butterfly Woman was relieved that she had met good helpers among the nurses and workers and among the women who had also experienced trauma. She realised that her reactions were natural, and understood how her trauma memories were triggered, so that she lost touch with where she was and forgot she was safe.
The helper explained to the Butterfly Woman that she needed to find ways to reconnect herself, and relocate herself in the here and now. The helper said:“ If you focus on the present moment, memories of the past will remain in the past”. The Butterfly Woman found it hard to understand what this meant. The helper said:“ Memory of the rape can invade the present, taking away your sense of time and place”. She explained that trauma memories belong to time past.“ The secret is to experience the present through our senses: this anchors us to the here and now”.
The helper put hot tea and two cups on the table in front of them. She said:“ Listen, what do you hear?” Then she poured tea into the cups. The Butterfly Woman listened, paused, and said that she heard the sound of the water pouring, a bird singing, and the voices of some of the women outside. The helper replied:“ You have now focused your hearing. These sounds tell you what is happening right now. This is how you connect yourself to the present moment by using your ears. Now hold the cup and use your sense of touch. Feel the cup.”
The Butterfly Woman could feel its warmth. Then they used their sense of taste to savour the tea. The Butterfly Woman could taste and smell the tea. The helper asked:“ What happened to your memories when we concentrated on hearing sounds, touching the cup, and tasting the tea?” The Butterfly Woman replied that they were absent.
The helper praised the Butterfly Woman’ s good work. She said that our senses are gateways that connect us to the present.“ When we focus our senses on what we are seeing, hearing, tasting and touching, what we feel becomes our reality. So it is important to open our senses and focus our attention on things that remind us that we are safe – that now and here we are safe. We call this a grounding exercise because it gives us ways to ground ourselves in the present moment.”