PSYCHO-SOCIAL RESPONSE TRAINING-WORKSHOP FOR TRAINORS:A JOURNEY TOWARDS SELF-HEALING AND BECOMING HEALERS

From left: Amy Muga (CEFAM-Coordinator), Carlota B. Francisco (IFPPAA-Vice President/Execom and PSR Project Coordinator), Fr. Ted Gonzales (CEFAM-Director), Rosella Camte-Bahni (IFPPAA-Vice-Chair/National Council and PSR Project Proponent), and Paz Palis (IFP-Philippines Staff)

A Narrative Report Submitted to the IFPPAA (International Fellowship Program-Philippines Alumni Association)

By Carlota B. FranciscoProject Coordinator

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Prologue

From late September to early November of 2009 the Philippines was hit by a series of

typhoons (i.e., Ondoy, Pepeng, Quedan, Ramil, Santi and Tino) leaving hundreds of

casualties, and grave damages to homes and infrastructures. Dreadful as it were, these

stimulated damayan and bayanihan (local volunteerism) among private organizations

and individuals who immediately responded to the need for relief goods and services.

The International Fellowship Program-Philippines Alumni Association (Ford

Foundation-IFPPAA), for its part, have been driven to respond through donations

from the United Kingdom coursed to the association by Celso Valmonte (Cohort

2002), and a request for a Psycho-Social Debriefing training for trainors made by two

of its members in Benguet, Rosella Camte-Bahni (Cohort 2005) and Marjorie Balay-

as (Cohort 2005). The training was conducted in November 2009. The UK goods, on

the other hand, arrived in early December and were delivered for distribution to the

Aeta community in Botolan by Carlota Francisco (Cohort 2002) and Ms. Criselda

Doble (IFP-Philippines Program Officer) on 16 January 2010. The community is

served by Ariel Cervantes (Cohort 2004) who will take charge of the distribution

tomorrow (16 February 2010).

This narrative will focus on the Psycho-Social Debriefing training, the

Psycho-Social Response Training-Workshop (PSR Project), which became top

priority of the IFPPAA-National Capital Region cluster in 2009.

Putting the Stones Together

The proposal for trainors training on Psycho-Social Debriefing was initiated

by Camte-Bahni and Balay-as. The project became top priority due to its urgency and

the magnitude of the problem in the region. It was handed over to the NCR cluster

with Carlota Francisco as project coordinator working along side Camte-Bahni and

Balay-as (the project proponents). As the latter set things into motion by doing the

legwork within the region, the former took on coordination works, navigating through

organizations and institutions within Luzon. A survey of human resources and calls

for volunteers within the IFPPAA were immediately initiated. However, other

institutions and individuals were eventually accommodated making the PSR Project a

collaborative work of the IFPPAA, the Center for Family Ministry (CEFAM) of the

Ateneo de Manila University, the Department of Health-Cordillera Autonomous

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Region (DOH-CAR), and a number of private individuals who became part of the

work force.

The Journeying Through PSR

The two-day Psycho-Social Response Training-Workshop may be likened to a

journey. A journey: 1.) back to one’s experience, 2.) into the fellow workshop

participants’, 3.) to the on-going PSR (the training-workshop), and 3.) to the yet to be

(plotting and continuing with the journey ahead).

The Orientation: Laying Down the Map Towards Building a Community of Trainors

Like any journey, the PSR Training-workshop started with defining a map, the

method by which to proceed and a traveler’s itinerary.

At the heart of the journey are rituals. These foster a sense of community,

which anchors the training within the everyday life of the participants while at the

same time, raising it to the spiritual. Metaphors indigenous to the workshop

participants were employed to advance this sense of communal experience.

Where the training literally required the act of identifying and bringing

together key persons to respond to children’s psycho-social needs in a community

struck by disaster (natural or man-made), the Tungkod (Staff) and the Cordillera

people’s practice of putting stones together (pagsasalansan ng mga bato) became

appropriate metaphors for the journey at hand.

Apart from the metaphors, an indigenous framework was lifted to foster a

sense of ownership of the PSR. Holistic, the approach involved five Ks: Krisis-

Kulang (crisis-lack), Kalikasan-Kalakasan (nature-strength), Kaya-Kailangang

Gawin (capability-need), Kahulugan-Kahalagahan (meaning-purpose), Kasama-

Kaagapay (support system), and Kultura-Kasanayan (culture-folkways), which

guided, structured and shaped the process.

Emphasized in the framework was the need to go beyond the experience of

loss, and recognize, as well as affirm the personal, communal, and cultural resources

that would lead one to re-discover, as it were, the dance of life. Balance, an occasion

to sow, a call to be part of the solution, and empowerment, in a term –total human

development was the goal of the Psycho-Social Response defined by the director of

CEFAM, Fr. Teodulo Gonzales, for the workshop participants.

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Revisiting the Past: Debriefing the Workshop Participants

Having identified the goal, defined the itinerary, drawn the map, and explained the

method by which to approach PSR, the journey begins with a re-encounter with the

past –of one’s self and of the fellow workshop participants’ through a group

debriefing.

The process allowed workshop participants to pause for a while, and revisit

experiences yet unconfronted, or that which were set aside as the need to respond to

the moment took precedence. This provided validation and evaluation of experiences,

affirmation of the self, and personal as well as socio-cultural inventory. With this, the

private became a shared experience, and the personal –communal.

While revisiting memories may lead to the beginning of healing, old wounds that are

still very painful may resurface. With this, a healing ritual, led by one of the workshop

participants, was conducted where those who directly experienced or witnessed loss

were asked to be at the center to receive community healing.

Alternative Approaches to PSR for Children

Having affirmed one’s nature and capability, and experienced compassion

from all nurturing sources and through healing rituals, the workshop participants

began the training as PSR trainors…

Art and Play Therapy Demonstrations

Both art and play therapies invite the counselor to have a warm and friendly

relationship with the child, and to accept the child as she/he is. While both require

patience and the capacity to enter the world of children, the workshop emphasized the

necessity of knowing how to listen and discern opportunities for intervention.

Caring for the Caregivers

Doing PSR, however, does not only require acquiring the skills necessary to perform

debriefing. It also involves the ability to take care of and protect oneself from possible

psychological trauma. It is therefore important for care-givers to learn the art of caring

for the self and prioritize their immediate environment –their family.

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As mentioned, early in the PSR training-workshop a debriefing of the

participants was conducted. The process made apparent the participants’ shortcomings

in terms of caring for themselves and their family. It is thus not surprising to hear

realizations about neglect of family, and moans about being burned-out. The group

debriefing has thus prepared the participants for the caring for the care-giver session,

where importance of caring for the self holistically, realizing and affirming their

priorities, and marking boundaries between personal and professional life were

emphasized. Towards the end of this session, the participants were invited to affirm

and commend their being –the self, and to write their commitments and priorities.

Drawing the Core Values, Identifying the Challenges, and Defining a Response

As a synthesizing activity, participants were grouped and asked to draw

lessons from their experience of the disaster and identify values commonly witnessed

during the relief operations, and from these define concrete ways by which they could

intervene as they go through their everyday lives.

Amidst the shared pain of losing a loved one, a home, livelihoods… or

witnessing these, the disaster became for the participants, an eye-opener to one’s

responsibility towards nature.

“We are all responsible for the calamity and must therefore do our part…,” shared one participant.

Another major realization has to do with the affirmation of strength, courage,

dependability, not to mention the sense of community which workshop participants

claimed to be alive and strong during the rescue operations. Where the workshop

participants witnessed first-hand, if not experienced for themselves, that sense of

courage and strength to stand-up and move-on, denial of personal needs was

experienced with the apparent need to respond to the needs of others who they feel

lost more than they did. In the process, many differences were set aside.

“People naturally responded,” one participant contributed.

This sense of connection and unity is further experienced with a shared pain

for the deceased who, in times of disaster usually become mere numbers for statistical

reports of government agencies and whose bodies were publicly prepared in

evacuation sites together with the survivors. Sensitivity, appropriate care, and respect

for the casualties of disasters were, hence, proposed especially in preparing the bodies

of the deceased, as in the case of mass deaths.

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To summarize, the following are core values drawn from the group discussions : 1.)

cooperation/collaboration (bayanihan) across groups and communities, 2.)

compassion/ commitment to serve, 3.) respect for life/dignity of the self (and

especially of the dead [tama bang dito ko nilipat Lot?]) and nation, 4.)

centeredness/common ground, and 5.) congruence and consistency. The areas defined

for intervention are cited as follows: 1.) curriculum--since most participants are

teachers an integration within the curriculum of disaster preparedness is deemed

necessary; 2.) individual commitment--where the participants are non-teaching staff,

they recognize the need to incorporate the latter within their work commitments; 3.)

creation of a technical working group; 4.) networking and

5.) constant communication among participants. Where concerns were raised with

regard to the latter three items, bringing to attention the locations of the participants

and their current work-loads, Rose Dumelod (Cohort 2002) of the DILG-CAR, in

response, commits to proposing the institutionalization of local PSR trainors. The

following are the other organizations/institutions who responded to the commitments

and challenges laid down by the group: DOH-CAR, Department of Social Welfare

and Development (DSDW-CAR), Social Action Center, and Diocese of Baguio

Schools. The responses centered on networking and the proposed creation of a PSR

Debriefing core-group within CAR. The responses centered on the appreciation and

recognition on the need for the same items, however, no concrete plan was defined

other than the commitment made by Dumelod of DILG-CAR.

The two-day PSR training-workshop seemed too short to cover every trainor’s

and debriefer’s concerns. However, reading through the participants’ assessment1

brings a sense of fulfillment into the project. Where stories become treasures of every

participant from each other, the project is deemed to further inspire IFPPAA in

continuing with its commitment to work for social justice.

Epilogue: Looking Back…

More than training trainors to conduct psycho-social debriefing, the workshop was

designed to provide debriefing to the participants themselves, who the team felt need

to undergo the process itself as they are direct witnesses of the tragedy. This came out

in the participants’ evaluation of the program, where some admitted to having

experienced physical, psychological and emotional fatigue.

1 See attachments: participant’s profile, assessment and financial report.

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The workshop attendance reached more than a hundred percent with a total of

40 participants receiving certificates of attendance and completion. Apart from

attendance, the quality of attendees is worth nothing. Key persons (i.e., school

principals, teachers, guidance counselor, a doctor, nurses, and social workers) deemed

effective providers of children’s and adolescent’s needs in the communities directly

affected by the typhoon, attended the training. Also of significance is the apparent

role of fate where the PRS seemed a destined project of the IFPPAA.

Synchronicity could very well explain the realization of the project (from

conceptualization, to defense and deliberation, to implementation). It appears that the

PSR Training-Workshop for Trainors in Benguet was synchronically designed to

materialize. The journey may have involved a roller coaster ride between emotions of

heightened passion to a downhill, almost death of passion, back to a certain peak as

affirmation of its urgency and need have been attested by the recipients themselves2.

Everything seemed to just fall into place at just about the right time i.e., the idea,

human resources, budget release, etc. In this regard, it is but appropriate to express

gratitude and acknowledge those who have rendered resources to this project, the

project proponents – Rosella Camte-Bahni and Marjorie Balay-as; project coordinator

– Carlota B. Francisco; project finance manager – Jane dC Austria-Young; CEFAM

staff –Fr. Ted Gonzales, Lei Lopez, Amy Muga and Buddy Panlasigue; CLSU

faculty/staff sent by Jay Santos (thanks as well to Jay of Cohort 2005) to assist in the

workshop --Evelyn Acoba, Karen Alvarez, and Liezl Saguion; IFPPAA members who

took part in the brainstorming sessions during NCR cluster meetings (Danny

Valenzuela, Glenn Mas, Gigie Barnedo, Jane Austria-Young, Jed Guinto, Carlota B.

Francisco, Lotlot Jimunzala, Manny de Guzman, and Peter Bellen); IFPPAA who

brought the project to the PSSC for approval (Jane, Carlota and Manny); other

IFPPAA members who visited and/or assisted the project implementation (Rose

Dumelod and Russ Calagan); the invaluable assistance of IFP-PSSC staff –Joanne,

Dada, Paz, Tibo and Dolly; and the support and/or approval of PSSC-IFP Heads –Dr.

Virginia Miralao, Dr. Manny Diaz, and Ms. Luisa Fernan; and to the ONE WHO

synchronized everything from start to finish. It is the PSR team’s hope that the project

will stimulate more worthwhile activities and inspire the alumni to participate.

2 See the attached assessment report.

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