Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Palestinian perspectives
on responding
to trauma
and torture
The authors of the following papers can be contacted
c/o the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims
of Torture (TRC). Al-Ersal St. Al-Isra'a Building,
7th floor P.O. Box 468 Ramallah, Palestine.
Tel.: +972 2 2961710, 2963932
Fax: +972 2 2989123.
Email: info@trc-pal.org
The TRC website is www.trc-pal.org
For some time I have been working with a A forty-year-old woman from Jericho with whom
mother of three children, all of whom have I work has been struggling with serious depression
significant disabilities. They cannot hear or speak since she was diagnosed with cancer. After having
and this mother has felt considerable sorrow and been through many difficulties in her life, this
self-blame about this. She has compared her seemed to her to be the last straw. She was refusing
children negatively to those of other mothers, and to take her medication and it looked like she had
felt overwhelmed by the misfortune that has come given up on life. I had tried various approaches to
upon her and her family. When other people have conversations before I realised that perhaps within
approached her, they convey their sympathy to her her own life history there might be stories and
about her situation and this has made her feel experiences that could assist her at this time.
worse. She has felt poor and small and as if she I became curious about other times in her life when
had nothing to contribute to the world. At first, in she may have felt hopeless, or up against a very
my conversations with this mother, I was showing powerful foe. I suspected that this might not have
my empathy and trying to calm her down, but this been the first time that she had needed to face very
did not seem to be making a difference. At times difficult circumstances. She then began to tell me a
I was also trying to find some positive things for story of when she once was in a similar situation,
the mother to acknowledge, but the ways I was facing death, also from cancer. Nine years ago she
doing this were not resonating for her. had been diagnosed for the first time and she had
One day though, this mother was particularly feared for her life. I wanted to know about the
upset – she was crying and feeling considerable difficulties she faced then, about the hardest things,
despair and I noticed that her children were the times when all had seemed hopeless. I then
comforting her. They were soothing her tears, and asked questions to learn about the skills and
were successfully calming her. I began to ask the knowledge she had used during those most difficult
mother about this and learned that this happened times, about what had sustained her, about what
quite regularly. Her children were quite skilled at she had learned, about who else had made
knowing when she was upset and how to respond contributions, about what she had dreamt about,
to her. I also learned that, whenever foreigners how she had kept hopes alive. As we talked, she
came to their village, her children would show them said that she had forgotten all about those times.
the way to wherever they needed to go. Similarly, She had become disconnected from her own skills
her older child would often assist older people and in the process had become disconnected from
around the village, and would care for other hope. In remembering some of the stories of her
children in the special school which they attended. own life, in re-engaging with her own history, this
These were all sparkling moments and we reconnected her with hope.
began to explore some of the alternative, preferred
stories of these children’s lives. We began to
explore what seemed important to these children, RESPONDING TO GRIEF
what they valued and how they demonstrated this By Iman Ja’ouni
in their lives. As we made these explorations
together, this mother started to notice and mention When working with families who have
more of the contributions that these children were experienced grief and loss, I have become very
making. She could even recognise that she shared interested in ‘double-listening’2, listening not only for
some of the same values and hopes for life. We did stories of sorrow and distress, but also for openings
not diminish the hardships that this mother faces in to other stories, stories that convey what is
her daily life, but acknowledging the contributions important to the person, their values and beliefs.
of the children has resulted in her feeling more I was recently working with a mother who had lost
optimistic. her child in a car accident. Since her child’s death
TALKING ABOUT VIOLENCE There are many different forms of violence that
we are endeavouring to respond to. Prior to
Parents are often very anxious to know how they working here at the TRC, I used to work with
should respond to their children during times of crisis, teenage girls who had been subjected to sexual
particularly when there is shooting and explosions. abuse. I was working in a shelter for these
They want to know what they should do when their young women which had become their home.
children are frightened. First of all, we ask them how Many Palestinian young women who disclose
they can tell when their children are shocked or sexual abuse are forced by their families to
traumatised. We ask them what they know about their leave the family home, and these shelters are
children’s ways of coping. We also provide some one of the few places they can turn to. Like
information about things to look out for and ways of many places around the world, violence and
creating contexts for their children to speak about abuse within families is associated here with
their experiences, their thoughts and understandings. considerable shame. People try to hide it. It is
We describe how this can occur through play, drawing a form of trauma that is not often talked about
and drama. Sometimes, if the parents say they would here. Because of this, survivors of domestic
like this, we create programs for local schools so that violence and sexual abuse may feel extremely
children have a chance to talk with others about what isolated. They may remain afraid of their former
they have been going through. partner. And the stigma about having been a
We also hold public meetings on the topic of rape victim can be demoralising. Alongside our
domestic violence. This is a topic that is not so efforts to address broader political violence, we
commonly talked about, so we explain what it is also need to address violence and abuse within
and how things happen. We talk about some of the families.
effects of this violence on women, men and children,
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