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News & stories |
 This week Systemic Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (SARAS) delivered a training session for us.
SARAS is a team of registered systemic psychotherapists providing psychological support to those traumatized by war and oppression and mentoring support for organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers. Their motto is “Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” The session covered the trauma that refugees and asylum seekers face getting here and cultural attitudes to mental health. The sort of activities that we run, for example games sessions, sport, music, art and cooking, are all ways of helping asylum seekers connect with their culture and with each other. Volunteers were given helpful tools to help boost the resilience of those they support, including a lovely Tree of Life exercise where refugees and asylum seekers can be asked to draw a tree and think about their roots, what grounds them, core values (trunk), hopes (branches) and gifts (leaves). The group also looked at their own resilience - the importance of setting boundaries, talking to colleagues and selfcare as we support those in very difficult situations and deal with dangerous anti-migrant rhetoric. We are hoping to run similar sessions in the future. Comments are closed.
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