OVERCOMING AND HEALING FROM TRAUMA
Firstly, let’s define what trauma is.
Trauma is the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a person's sense of safety, sense of self and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. Those who have experienced hardship and suffering often suffer lasting trauma from the experience. Traumatic events can fundamentally change not only victims' way of life, but also their psychological outlook. Trauma can have a range of different cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral effects on individuals. Cognitive responses include memory difficulties, lack of concentration, poor judgment, inability to discriminate, and inability to make choices.
Dr. Hefman of Harvard University once said that “The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. ... Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.”
Studies around the world have proved that trauma will not go away unless it is actively confronted. Psychological refurbishment and healing can only occur through providing the space for survivors to feel heard and for every detail of the traumatic event to be re-experienced in a safe environment. At the same time, it should be made clear that the trauma cannot be erased. The goal of trauma healing is to acknowledge the experience and take part into a sort of personal or collective renaissance. The main goal of overcoming trauma and healing is to give victims a feeling that they have control over their lives again.
In most cases, the first step is to provide a safe haven. A feeling of safety will encourage victims to open up and reveal details of their suffering. Reiterating the details of one's story can be therapeutic and allows those memories to be incorporated into the victim's life story. It allows them to vent out the baggage that they have been carrying. When the story is told in the presence of the other who genuinely understands, it can lead to acknowledgement, apology, forgiveness, and reconnection.
Healing requires a focus on the victim. Prosecution is often not feasible in post-conflict situations due to a corrupt judicial system or one that is unable to handle the volume of cases it would be faced with. For the purposes of healing, trials are also poor because they center on the rights of the accused.