Mizzima Counseling a Trauma Society

8/10/2019 Mizzima Counseling a Trauma Society

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K

o Kwin Moe Myint, a stu-dent activist involved in thedemocracy uprising in 1988said he never eared arrest.

Even afer being jailed or seven monthsin 1991, his spirit was unbroken.

We [activists] have strong minds andstrong spirits, Ko Kwin Moe Myint saidin an interview withMizzima BusinessWeeklyat the Assistance Associationor Political Prisoners (Burma) office inYangon.

We thought: I we can ace the mili-tary government, we can ace anything.

He was re-arrested in 1999 or his

involvement in organising a 9-9-99movement and sentenced to 29 yearsin prison, o which he served 12 yearsbeore being released under amnesty in2012.

I had a different eeling afer beingin prison or so many years; the earless-ness was gone, said Ko Kwin Moe Myint.Honestly, I was araid o being released.I didnt have a job. I had nothing to do. Icouldnt bear my lie.

Afer being released, he learned thathis poverty-stricken amily had soldhis house in Yangon years earlier andwas unable to support him. His support

system dissolved completely when he lostcontact with ormer activist colleagues.

I didnt have the money to travel tomeetings with other activists; I slippedaway rom politics, he said.

Last year, he learned about a counsel-ling programme offered by the new-ly-opened Yangon office o the AssistanceAssociation or Political Prisoners, basedin the Tai border town o Mae Sot. Aferreceiving counselling, Ko Moe Myinttrained to become a counsellor.

I understand the trauma o politicalprisoners, he said. Afer three meetingsthey [the client] start to trust me and

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Supervisor Ko Bol Bol Lwin has been involved with AAPP since 2003. CREDIT Lwin Maung Maung


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open up.In February 2013, AAPP members

were trained in Mae Sot by acultymembers o Johns Hopkins University inthe United States to provide therapy toormer political prisoners suffering romanxiety, depression and trauma. raineesbecame supervisors and brought theirskills to Yangon where they continue totrain counsellors.

Te AAPP Mental Health Assis-tance Project in Yangon is beginning toaccept clients or counselling who are notormer political prisoners, said co-super-

visor Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe.

Funding has been provided or theproject by the US Agency or Interna-tional Developments Victims o ortureFund and will continue until September2014, she said.

Since 2004, JHU aculty have part-nered with local organisations in coun-tries and regions with limited health careresources, including Kurdistan [northernIraq], the eastern Democratic Republico the Congo and the Tai-Myanmarborder, to identiy mental health issuesand design appropriate responses.

JHU, in partnership with AAPP,Social Action or Women, Burma Border

Projects and the Mae ao Clinic conduct-ed research on the mental health needso Myanmar migrants in Mae Sot rom2010 to 2012.

Afer the research, JHU, AAPP andMae Sot-based Social Action or Womenused the Common Elements reatmentApproach, a mental health interventiondeveloped by JHU and the University oWashington in Seattle or use in areaswith limited resources and ew counsel-lors.

Social Action or Women continuesto provide counselling and training ornew counsellors at Mae Sot and nearby

Counsellinga trauma

society

By Portia Larlee

We have a really unique opportunityto help people


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Phop Phra district, and AAPP works inMae Sot, Mandalay and Yangon.Rather than providing training or

treating diagnoses individually, counsel-lors with CEA training treat compo-nents o trauma, depression and anxiety.

echnically, we try not to think somuch in ormal diagnosis but ratherlook at each individual and problemsthey may present with, said Dr LauraMurray, rom the Johns Hopkins Schoolo Public Health, who co-developed theCEA approach.

Many ormer clients have recom-mended that their amilies and riendsalso seek counselling, indicating apositive response to the CEA approach,Dr Murray, a clinical psychologist, toldMizzima Business Weeklyin an email.

Supervisor Ko Bol Bol Lwin has twobrothers who are ormer political pris-oners and has been working or AAPPsince 2003. Most o his current clients arereerrals rom ormer clients.

Political prisoners and their amiliesare all connected, he said.

Encouraging clients to think differ-ently known as cognitive restructuring is a CEA technique used by Ma KhinNyein Chan Soe and her team. Coun-sellors can help clients understand thattheir thoughts may be inaccurate andunhelpul and encourage them to shiftheir thinking.

Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe saidsadness, anger and ear associated withdifficult memories can be reduced i aclient openly discusses them.

Former political prisoner Kyaw SoeWin, now clinical supervisor with theMental Health Assistance Project, trainedto be a counsellor at Mae Sot in 2010.

One o the most difficult things weace is talking with people about theirspecific traumatic events such as im-prisonment, torture, rape, and witnessingthe killing o a amily member, he wrotein Rebuilding Burma, a monographpublished in Interventionjournal, aNetherlands-based publication ocusedon mental health, psychosocial work andcounselling in areas o armed conflict.

I asked mysel, Can the people reallyspeak out about their experience and willthis really help them? Although it wasdifficult, we actually ound that peoplewere able to talk about these experienc-es.

Clients are also taught relaxationtechniques such as deep breathing andmeditation to help them cope with stress,said Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe. Counsel-lors are also expected to ask clients ofeni they have had thoughts o suicide anda saety team, including an on-call psy-chiatrist, has been ormed or sel-harmemergencies, she said.

Supervisor Ko Chit Ko Lin said therewere no suicides among the MHAPclients who sought counselling in Yangonand Mandalay in 2013.

Many o us [ormer political prison-ers] are Buddhist and the rules [againstsuicide] are very strict, he said. Tis[committing suicide] is the wrong wayor the next lie.

However, supervisor Ko Htin Aungsaid he knows o ormer political prison-

The Mental Health Assistance Project team at the AAPP office in Yangon. CREDIT Lwin Maung Maung


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ers whose struggles with mental healthissues led to suicide.

We have a really unique opportunity

to help people, said Ko Htin Aung. Wehelp them [the clients] navigate lies chal-lenges with confidence, calm thinkingand optimism.

In 1990, when Ma Khin Nyein ChanSoe was eight months old, her ather, USoe Myint, was charged under section17(1) o the Unlawul Associations Actor his involvement in the Burma Com-munist Party and sentenced to jail orseven years.

U Soe Myint and National League orDemocracy co-ounder, the late U Win

in, shared time together at western BagoRegions Tarrawady prison, which wasnotorious or unusually harsh treatment.Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe said her atherand U Win in wrote on paper withsmall pieces o brick to record their expe-riences in Tarrawady prison, or whichanother seven years was added to theirsentences in 1996.

With limited unds to make the 80-mile (125-kilometre) trip rom Yangon toTarawaddy, Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soeand her mother were able to visit U Soe

Myint in prison only once every one ortwo years.I didnt cry when I visited him

because I believed in him, said Ma KhinNyein Chan Soe. My ather was a hero.

Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe under-stands stigma. She experienced discrim-ination and was ostracised during herschool days because her ather was inprison. Former political prisoners alsoexperience stigma when seeking therapy,she said.

Tey [ormer political prisoners]eel like i they get counselling, they areill, said counsellor Ko Kyaw Saw. Teirattitude is, We cannot accept counsellingbecause we are strong; we are politicalprisoners.

A client who asked not to be namedsaid he has told some o his ormer pris-on mates but not his amily that he isreceiving counselling.

He joined the Burma CommunistParty afer his amily was displaced bythe military rom their home village inRakhine State and was arrested in 1988.

Beore I started the counselling ses-sions, I thought, Nobody cares about me, he said. Afer I met with the counsellor,I realised my thinking was wrong. Now Ieel like I have hope and a uture.

Te AAPP Mental Health AssistanceProject in Myanmar has trained another13 counsellors since January. Tere arenow our counsellors and one supervisorin Mandalay and 15 counsellors and fivesupervisors in Yangon. Tey provide

counselling to more than 100 clients.Te counselling programmes arerom eight to 12 weeks and Ma KhinNyein Chan Soe meets five or six clients aweek. She meets them at a tea shop or attheir home, i privacy is preerred. UntilJanuary, Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe saidshe was ollowed by a plainclothes intelli-gence officer to each o her appointments.

Tey [the government] have thedata and inormation on all politicalprisoners, she said. Tey know about allo our [Mental Health Assistance Project]activities.

Ko Htin Aung said many o hisclients were uncomortable about intel-ligence officers eavesdropping on theirconversations rom a nearby table.

Eventually, I became riends withthe officer because he was always there[at meetings], he said. I the meeting is

very serious, we will meet at the clientshome.

Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe said shehopes the programme will expand toprovide counselling in Kayin and Kachin

states as well as to ormer members o theatmadaw, who have also been trauma-tised by their experiences.

Burma is a trauma society, whichincludes soldiers, children, governmentservants, everyone, she said. Duringfify years o military rule, there were noresources, no education opportunitiesand no chance. Tis is a type o torture and its still happening.

Ms Laura Merchant, the assistant

director o the Harborview Center orSexual Assault and raumatic Stress atthe University o Washington in Seattle,provided CEA training in Yangonin February. In an email toMizzimaBusiness Weekly, Ms Merchant said anassistant hired or the training requestedto meet a counsellor.

Tey [the assistant] practiced theskills at home between classes and theysaw the benefit or their own post-trau-matic stress symptoms, she said Whilethere is still a hesitancy to talk aboutmental health problems [in Myanmar],people like learning the new skills andhaving new ways to think that help themovercome their troubling symptoms.

Another client who wished to remainanonymous was arrested in June 2008afer two decades o activism.

Tis [mental health programme]is needed in our society; experienceso torture and imprisonment effectour minds, he said. Counselling isteaching ways to relax and eel relie;everyone needs this.

Supervisor Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe at the AAPP office in Yangon.

CREDIT Lwin Maung Maung

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Mizzima Counseling a Trauma Society