A Unique Approach to Healing Trauma
– Elsa Cherrier
Trauma is a pervasive issue that affects people from all walks of life, but those living in impoverished communities are often hit the hardest.
Trauma can be defined as the result of exposure to an incident or series of events that are emotionally disturbing or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being.
Like many South Africans, the residents of Cambridge Village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, currently face sustained displacement, feelings of shame, and unspoken trauma from the historical effects of Apartheid. They continue experiencing debilitating levels of intergenerational and long-term exposure to trauma, which has paralysed the community into a state of poverty, hunger, unemployment, crime, and violence.
Poverty can also create a cycle of trauma that can be difficult to break free from, leading to chronic stress and seemingly unrelated mental health conditions and physical health problems. However, at The Dandelion Philosophy, we believe that resilience can be a powerful tool for transforming trauma and breaking this cycle.
What is Resilience?
Resilience does not mean we erase or pretend our trauma does not exist, but rather it creates awareness within us and enables us to adapt our behaviours and perceptions to understand and cope with our trauma.
Resilience thus denotes the capacity to live with our trauma by developing new perspectives and a more empathic understanding of our experiences. It is a dynamic, human-centred process, and our perspective on what resilience means changes throughout the course of our lives.
For The Dandelion Philosophy, resilience reinforces the ability to constantly adapt to change in both our personal and social lives, as these often have an impact on each other. Hope is one example of a personal resilience trait while finding a supportive community and a sense of belonging are examples of social resilience.
A hopeful individual tends to work more consciously towards nurturing a more unified environment, resulting in individuals being more able to sustain the feeling of hope within themselves, and in the communities, they are a part of.
Using Resilience to Transform Trauma
At The Dandelion Philosophy, we work towards sustainable change by providing more than just short-term relief and solutions to the physical effects of poverty.
We focus on the individual as a whole, meaning we address psychological well-being, as well as physical well-being, in the communities we serve.
Studies show that to promote resilience and a sense of protection and safety in a group setting, emphasising the group’s strengths and abilities is significantly more effective than focusing and working on the unhealed parts of the group. In minority groups specifically, solution-oriented approaches have proven to be far more beneficial, as these approaches promote hope and focus on individuals’ potential.
Diversity in experience also proves to be a key factor for processing history and living with our own traumas. By focusing on the collective, and creating collective activities and spaces, we can promote a platform for sustainable relationships based on trust.
Through our various initiatives and programmes, we offer a safe space to heal from the effects of long-term trauma exposure that so often exists in impoverished communities. We focus on building resilience in individuals in order to empower them to transform their deep-rooted pain into hope and discover their true potential.
We further focus on the collective potential of community members, who, by consciously enhancing their abilities, become increasingly aware of their strengths and knowledge.
We value and prioritise diversity and inclusivity in all of our projects and initiatives and support maintaining a connection to one’s history and restoring cultural identity as part of the healing journey. It is through connecting with others from all ages, genders, and backgrounds that unity can be enhanced and healing and resilience are strengthened.
All of our initiatives at The Dandelion Philosophy are underpinned by a deep intention to strengthen individual and community members’ resilience. We use our unique Afrocentric approach to healing by focusing on psychological and social well-being as part of every one of our projects.
We empower individuals and communities by nurturing restorative coping mechanisms and providing access to proven tools that can transform deep pain into a new hope.
Over time, we will begin to introduce traditional Xhosa-inspired sanctuaries in Cambridge Village, where community members can gather to find support and exchange stories. Some of these spaces are specifically intended for women and young girls to share their experiences and hardships from a female perspective.
By embracing resilience and using it to transform trauma, we can reclaim our sense of power and agency, and create a better future for all.
To learn more about The Dandelion Philosophy, visit our website here.
