Connecting the professionals

This week has been all about connecting professionals, and having the joy of sitting back and watching the resultant peer to peer learning and skills development take place.

Liz and Elizabeth are both highly skilled professionals counselors / psychotherapists working with a range of clients in the UK, both privately and NHS-based.

ILA-Uganda are one of the CRED Partners, who specialize in trauma counseling and resettlement for the Acholi people, both in Kampala and up north in the Gulu region of Uganda. They also have a vision for developing a centre of best practice for a range of therapies related to mental wellbeing and overcoming trauma, and they are now starting to get invitations to get involved in delivering trauma counseling to refugee groups.

All marvelous people, doing incredible, self-less, life changing work for those that they serve, both here and in the UK.

And when put in the same room for 3 days you get a rich sharing of best practice, explanations of therapeutic models, cultural contextualizing of different ways of working, and a real focus on concern for self-care for each other. Powerful stuff that can only enhance the work of all practitioners present, and as a result enable more ordinary people who are struggling with a range of traumas to get the support they need to move onwards in climbing out of the mental pit of despair that they find themselves in.

Each day started with a wonderful time of praise and worship; they included times of deep thinking, times of sharing, times of questioning how to deal with particular problems, and times of laughter. Food and drink were shared, and games of pool at lunchtime were enjoyed!

These were 3 days where everyone came away richer for the experience; 3 days that will reap benefit for so many; 3 days that led to the development of strong professional bonds that will live on, even when everyone is back in their respective homes.

Thank you to Liz, Elizabeth and the ILA team – for all that you do, for all that you have each put in to the past few days, and for all that you bring to so many in your various working environments – the world is a richer place due to each one of you.