Training on Healing the Healer: Towards Sustainable Community Based Peacebuilding & Development Work: 9th to 13th May 2022, Nairobi, Kenya

The Training on Healing the Healer: Towards Sustainable Community Based Peacebuilding & Development Work is ideal for practitioners working in complex and fragile contexts in Africa, first responders including journalists, mental health practitioners, human rights defenders and the police and all those whose work is impacted by trauma.

This course is inspired by the believe that there’s crucial need for efforts towards breaking cycles of violence. Recent studies show that trauma amongst peacebuilders themselves considerably compromises efforts for reconciling and rebuilding societies after violent conflict (Davis, 2019).This finding is consistent with not only peacebuilders but first responders in general including; Journalists, mental health practitioners, human rights defenders and the police. Building long term sustainable peace therefore, must be sensitive to the presence of trauma in the communities in conflict as well as the trauma experienced by the very agents of peace.

Studies from various countries have shown that people exposed to traumatic experiences run a greater risk of poor life outcomes, including compromised physical health, risky behaviors like dropping out of school or substance abuse, poor economic self-sufficiency or poor parenting skills for the next generation (Lambourne, 2013). In short, individual and collective trauma is a driver of current violent conflicts including the structural violence that exist in organizations that ought to be transforming the conflict. 

The course will explore how trauma undermines peace building and development work while collectively identifying the tools and skills that are culturally sensitive to commence the individual and collective healing journey within their communities. 

The course will specifically focus on seeking answers to the following questions:

(a) How do we address the individual, collective and historical trauma in conflict zones?

(b) How does healing and unhealed trauma intersect with concepts of truth, justice, peace and forgiveness?

(c) How do we handle burnout in our lines of work, as first responders and agents of peace?

(d) In what ways can governments complement and support community-based healing processes?

(e) What practical ways are practitioners addressing their acquired trauma and unhealed trauma, to ensure sustainable peace in the conflict transformation process?

This course will explore, in a holistic way, the healing process of the agents of peace as well as post-conflict healing of communities. Beyond the healing of the affected, the participants will acquire tools and skills for practicing psychosocial wellbeing within their everyday work and communities they engage in.

Methodology

This training will be an in-person training, conducted over Five days, totaling to 30 hours of contact. With a maximum of 12 participants, the training will make use of a wide range of participatory adult learning models including inquiry, case study analysis, individual and group tasks and reflections from participants’ experiences. All learning will be focused on finding practical pathways towards healing in one’s individual context.

The small number of learners will create space for each participant to (re)discover the power of their vulnerability as a pathway of rediscovering their inner healer so as to be more effective as community healer and peacebuilder.

For more information about the course, download the training prospectus here

To apply for the course, download the training application here