The trauma healing initiative process and community awareness in South Sudan
By David Matiop Gai, Juba, South Sudan
December 19, 2017 (SSB) — In a comprehensive understanding, trauma is a psychological and emotional response to an extremely events or experiences that deeply disturbing mind, soul and feeling of a person. The events which can cause post-traumatic stress disorder are the wide ranges of problematic disadvantages that stuff ordinary life such as HIV/AIDS, serious illness, divorce, accident, killing, extremely beating, torture, and other extreme experiences of war as such in South Sudan.
Somebody told me, David Matiop I heard that you are a counsellor, and you went through many series counselling training, please can you help me? I have a trauma, and a man accepted being traumatized! As a counsellor, I didn’t jump into his needs just like that, I searched into his background biologically, psychologically, socially, culturally, economically, and spiritually and applying the applied psychology to understand him inclusively.
You know counsellors don’t talk of people names and do not provide solutions to people problems, but the counsellor at their levels and capacity guide right pathways for mental healing, and mental health sound integration. That is something to do with the restoration of human welfare or well-being, human dignity, and human rights.
Today in South Sudan, survivors are still suffering, and the country is still enduring extreme violence including sex trafficking, killings in different forms, torture in prisons, rape and domestic violence, but through trauma healing initiatives, the country and partners can increase resources for survivors and their families to build a network of those experienced torture and trauma rehabilitation services throughout the country.
Since trauma sometimes experience happen when or before families, individuals, and groups of people leave their respective homes, trauma begin at the time journey occurs and people begin settling in a new land or foreign homes, but the counsellor can apply community approaches which is fundamental to provide a long-term support and healing that traumatized individuals settling in new culture needs.
The trauma healing initiative process and community awareness is a study of affected people that increasingly went through slow treatment of traumatized societies which also necessary to the breakthrough high cycle of trauma and continuing the violence.
The trauma healing initiative process equips people affected as participants in workshops or community conferences have to understand the biological fear, affected behaviours, and cycle of violence. The other important factor helps people to understand their own fear more effectively, and build their self-esteem.
The process guide people to understand the right pathways of reconciliation, unity, peace, forgiveness, and the role in PTSD, that is (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) reduction among individuals and societies that engaged in violence.
There are major programmes in consultation to help vulnerable groups of youths, women, blind, and children to introduce them reflect, quite understand their strengths, and inner transformation to choose to forgive, and workout multiple- approaches to express their different feelings and heal their various unsolved trauma.
The author is a co-founder of South Sudan Mental Health care Organization, (SSMHCO). He holds Bachelor degree in Social Work and Social Administration from SSCUST, Bachelor of Theology from CLT, Bungoma, Kenya/Kalispell, USA, and a fellow researcher. He can be reached at david.matiopgai@gmail.com.
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