Psychosocial Support

Tandulenji ZimbaFountain of Life

Learning Objectives

• The participant will be able to:• Explain the important role played by

family members in providing support to survivors.• Understand the different types of

psychological support provided to survivors of abuse.

Types of Psychological and Social Support Provided by Fountain of

Life

• Psychological First Aid

• Trauma Counselling

• Play Therapy Sessions

• Support Group Sessions

Psychological First Aid

• Goals: • to reduce the initial distress caused by traumatic

events, and• to foster short and long term adaptive functioning and

coping.

• Reason needed: Although people are remarkably resilient, and the majority will recover without developing long term mental problems, the way in which service providers and others respond may have a lasting impact on affected individual's ability to cope.

Psychological First Aid

• Based on the following principles:• Promoting a sense of safety• Promoting calming• Promoting connectedness• Instilling hope

Psychological First Aid

• Basic Objectives:1) Help survivors tell you what their

immediate needs and concerns are, and gather additional information as appropriate.

2) Offer practical assistance and information to help people address their immediate needs and concerns.

Psychological First Aid

• Basic Objectives:3) Connect survivors as soon as

possible to social networks i.e Family, friends, neighbours and community helping resources.

4) Empower victims by supporting adaptive coping, acknowledge coping efforts and strength.

Trauma

• Trauma: A person’s shocking experience that is outside a person's normal life experience, which changes the way a person views themselves and the world.

• Traumatising experience is an ongoing experience - it does not end after the traumatising event, it starts with it, and parts of the process are sometimes postponed.

• It is possible for trauma to last for many years, or to arise years down the line after the cause has passed.

Trauma

A stressful event is likely to be traumatic if:• It happens unexpectedly.• The person felt powerless to prevent it.• It happened repeatedly.• Someone was intentionally cruel.• It happened in childhood.• Coupled with lack of support or negative

consequences from disclosure.

Trauma Counselling

• Trauma Counselling is a way of confronting the fears and memories of a traumatic event that leads to the survivor overcoming their loss and anxiety about the situation.

• It’s a type of counselling that works on the specific fears of each person and at enabling people to release their emotions and feelings on the subject.

• These emotions and feelings if suppressed can have an impact on a person’s well-being.

Feelings and Emotions Associated with Trauma

• Fear

• Anger

• Powerlessness

• Shock

• Numbness

• Hopelessness

• Grief

• Guilt

• Shame

• Depression

• Withdraw

• Dissociation

• Nightmares

• Flashbacks

Trauma Counsellor

• Definition: a person who has been trained in evidence-based methods who provides guidance for individuals and families as they cope with trauma. Their role is to facilitate the process where victims of a traumatic event become survivors by:• Listening to what a person is saying, not telling.• Supporting adaptive coping mechanisms.• Exploring with a person, and validating feelings and

emotions of the victim.• Preventing the issue of suppression as a defence.• Integrating the event meaningfully into the survivor’s

life.

Trauma Counselling Concepts

• Active listening and responding is a necessary skill for FOL counsellors . It requires being able to observe the client and pay attention to how to respond to the client.

• It is a skill that helps the counsellor understand what the client is actually saying, believes and thinks. It also help the counsellor understand the nature and intensity of emotions.

Trauma Counselling Concepts

• It is the feeling of being understood that encourages further conversation and helps to provide the survivor with new insight.

• Reflection on client’s feelings validates the survivors’ emotions and normalises the feeling

• The process of accurately understanding the client’s feelings leads to an establishment of a rapport/relationship with the survivor

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Solution-Focused Therapy

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Play Therapy

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Solution Focused Therapy- Very useful for a short term intervention as it focuses on development of positive goals. • It focuses on the survivor’s present and future

rather than the past. The counsellor invites the survivor to envision their preferred future and start moving towards that direction.

• The survivor’s strength and resources are explored.

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy- This is also useful for a short term treatment as it helps survivors develop coping skills that can be useful in the present and the future.• CBT focuses on helping survivors understand on

the thoughts and feelings that influence their behaviours.

• Counsellor helps the survivor combat destructive thoughts that lead to maladaptive behaviours.

• Counsellor explores with the survivors new adaptive coping skills that the survivor can practice.

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Play therapy – for young child survivors• Abused children develop a sense of

unworthiness because of the guilty evoked by mistreatment that then lead to sense of inferiority. They believe that no other adult would protect them because their trusted abuser did not.

• They are often imprisoned in a world in a world of fear, mistrust, self-denigration and isolation. They therefore benefit from FOL’s work aimed at releasing them from misconception and negative emotions.

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Play therapy (cont.)• Children do not always communicate verbally.

Play is a language for children, a media of communication. Children play out their experiences and send out their messages to others. Play therefore is a very useful tool of therapy for children that FOL use.

• During play sessions children learn freedom of expression, as everything they say has to be acknowledged. This makes children learn to respect others, because they feel respected and accepted no-matter what they do or say.

Types of Trauma Counselling

• Play therapy (cont.)• Directing children in what they do during

play therapy by providing them with alternatives helps them to learn self direction. They also learn to make choices and be responsible for their own choices, because they are in control.

For Child Survivors:The Parent’s Role in the

Process• No relationship can be formed between the child

and the counsellor without the parent. Family history and information on what happens outside the counselling room are what guides the counsellor.

• Children who are not supported and believed by their families are more likely to develop serious and long term effects.

• It is therefore essential for FOL counsellors to provide parents/guardians with the support, understanding and assistance that will empower them to respond appropriately to their children.

Support Groups

• Support Groups gives an opportunity to members of the group to share thoughts and feelings and help one another examine issues and concerns.

• They enable members to learn that other people struggle with the same problems, feel similar emotions and think similar thoughts

• It helps members feel valued as they share their opinions.

• FOL conducts support groups for parents/ guardians and teen support groups for survivors, the groups have also worked as follow up sessions on survivors helped with assessment of progress.

Conclusions

• It is essential for all OSC to put measures in place to ensure counselling services are available for survivors.

• Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an intervention that can be used by all agencies working with survivors of abuse and in the absence of trained counsellors. PFA can prevent the long term effects of trauma.