Today was day one of a 3-day workshop delivering the 360Life materials to a group of staff and volunteers who work for GNPDR, the CRED Partner based here in Rwanda. The aim of the training is to train the participants up so that they can deliver the materials themselves and get the knowledge out more widely and in the local language, in a way that I just don’t have the capacity or resources to do.
Of those involved in the training, 2 deliver the street kids programme, 3 are prison chaplains, 2 deliver mental health training, and 3 are church leaders who give voluntary additional support to the prison chaplaincy programme. Topics that we looked at today included a simple overview understanding of how the brain works, and how some key different parts of the brain interact with each other, influence each other, and have a bearing on decision making, problem solving, behaviour, learning and interpersonal skills. We also looked at the effects of trauma on the brain, including childhood trauma; the links between trauma and mental health; and ways in which individuals will approach tasks in different ways due to the unique ways in which they are wired (and not because they are just trying to be annoying by not doing things the same way as us).
It was a great day, and the participants really got stuck in with the conversations, practical applications, and reflective times. It was during some of those reflective times that I was humbled by the implications of just how important the participants saw this training to be, and the potential that they saw for it to transform lives.
One participant spoke of a troubled young person that they were trying to support who had been rejected by the rest of the family, after months of deteriorating relationship between parents and the young person. The backstory of this young person included all manner of dysfunctional and or absent support from the parents and had now reached the stage whereby the young person had left home, been caught doing drugs, sleeping around, and generally making life choices that were perhaps not the wisest options. Until today, the participant said that she had run out of ideas on how to try and help or even understand the young person, and just didn’t know where to start in trying to make any progress with her. But today, as we looked at childhood trauma and the impact it can have on the brain, things started to become clearer. The participant spoke of being able to see the situation of the young person in a new way that made sense when set against the context of her past, and she started to determine some strategies for what to try next to help the young person.
Another participant, who has done the training before and so is doing it this time as a refresher, testified to how the course opened up his mind to new ways to understand people, and why they are the way they are, including his wife! He also spoke about the troubles from his past as a result of parents addicted to alcohol, and the trauma he had experienced as the oldest sibling trying to care for them. The 360Life materials had given him a new perspective through which to view various parts of his history and the influence of his history on his current life; and also a lens through which to better understand some of the behaviours shown by his younger siblings.
More reflections were shared about how the knowledge being gained will help to engage with the various service users of GNPDR programmes: prison inmates, street kids, families of the prisoners, prison staff. And how the knowledge will better equip the GNPDR staff and volunteers to have a trauma-informed approach to their ministry rather than being problem-focussed in their approach.
I always love giving this training, as it is always so well received and seems to very much fill a gap in the knowledge of those who are seeking to provide really valuable and much-needed services and support to extremely broken, vulnerable and marginalized sectors of society. Today was no different.
As I spend time trying to discern what my main foci are going to be in this new post-doctoral phase of my life, I am getting a strong sense through the conversations and the feedback from others, that 360Life is there to stay. I’m certainly not ready to turn my back on it, or on the people who are so passionate about finding ways to get the knowledge out into their nations.
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