Safety Planning

I want to take the time to say a special thanks to the Chapel Hill Police Department, in particular Officer Geercken, for coming out and speaking to the Forgotten Voice's Children's Group. Many of these children have only come into contact with police officers under rather troubling circumstances (a parent being arrested, a fight being broken up, etc.). The majority of the children expressed initial hesitation about having a police officer visit the group; however, they all displayed a high level of respect during the presentation. Officer Geercken did a wonderful job of interacting with the children and helping to break down the barrier of mistrust. I truly believe that all of the children walked away with a different, more positive, feeling toward law enforcement.

Challenges

Last week, by far, marked the most challenging group session that I have ever led for child witnesses of domestic violence. The subject topic was abuse. This topic is always a hard one to address, due to both the serious nature and high level of pain associated with the matter. A large majority of the children with which I have had the pleasure of working with over the past six weeks come from extremely troubling backgrounds, having seen/experienced far more pain than any person should ever have to undergo throughout his/her lifetime. Amazingly, which I think says a lot about the success of the group, the children were ready and eager to talk. They wanted their experiences validated. They wanted someone to listen. My co-facilitator and I were able to do this job. We can validate emotions. We can listen. We can give support. However, sadly, a limitation does arise. Without a professional license, I cannot help these children to relive/reprocess this events, something they desperately crave. It makes me sad for the present; yet, motivated for the future, as I definitely now know I want/need to pursue higher education/training in order to effectively help this population.

Currently, I am working on referrals for these kids. The Center for Child and Family Health in Durham has wonderful resources. They use empirically supported treatment plans and accept many forms of insurance, in addition to Medicaide (the plan that the majority of my clients have). Everyone who I have spoken to at this agency is upbeat and positive. They work individually with children to ensure a successful treatment plan. Hope remains in the future. It simply is hard, when you encounter so much pain (physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, domestic violence, verbal assault, etc) in a child, and there is no way for you to erase that feeling of violation and sadness away. That memory of pain will always remain with the child. The question becomes, how does the mental health field help a child to reprocess this event in order to move successfully forward in the future. Is it possible to live happily ever after?

Group Updates

As we enter July, Forgotten Voices marks its half way point. The past group sessions have been incredible. Session 2 focused on self esteem. This is highly important given that self esteem is a major resiliency factor for children who experience domestic violence. The session helped the children to realize how they are all unique individuals and concluded with the creation of an "I Am Special" poster, in which every child made their hand-print and wrote an adjective underneath to describe themselves. This poster has been, and will continue to be, hung up at every group session. Session 3 centered on emotions and feelings. The children were challenged to explore different emotions and talk about how these made them feel. Instead of saying, "I feel good," the children were encouraged to expand and use different words such as happy, enthusiastic, delighted, etc. The example of a "rainbow of feelings" helped the children to understand that we all go through different feelings, ranging from red (anger) to blue (sad) with a multitude in-between. The take home message was that all of our feelings are valid. Session 4 dealt with families. We talked about the similarities and differences in families. At the end of the session, each child was received "A Special Member Of My Family Award." This session emphasized that although families can be different, that is okay.

Given the half-way mark of the program, we held a special parenting session last week. This was a chance for parents to check in, voice concerns, learn more about their child's progress, and participate in a parental psycho-education component on the impact of trauma on children and parenting skills. The meeting was a huge success. It was projected to only last one hour, instead due to large parent involvement/participation, it nearly lasted two! These mothers have been such a pleasure to work with. Through their dedication, concern, and support of the program it is obvious how much they truly care for their children and are actively working to ensure their successful futures. I feel honored to be working in their presence.

The first half of Forgotten Voices has been a true success. For the second half, we will begin to wind down the group and begin focusing on developing a training program for future group facilitators. I feel confident that the second half of Forgotten Voices will continue to thrive and prosper :)