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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