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|  UK Charity Reg No: 1203695 247

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Our Activities

We’re proud to share our activities, which include classes and workshops that are designed to offer support services in a fun and engaging way. We put on a variety of events and offer activities throughout the year, so stay updated. We’d appreciate your support!

Journaling for Healing: Module 4

Imagine, for a moment, being able to step outside of your pain and view your experiences through the lens of a caring friend. What would you say to yourself? How would you extend grace, empathy and understanding to the person you see in the mirror? This is the essence of reframing, and it’s a practice that has the potential to change lives.

The Art of Reframing: Seeing Ourselves Through New Eyes

Reframing is not about forcing positivity or denying the pain of our experiences. It’s about finding new perspectives that allow us to navigate our healing journey with compassion and resilience. During the session, we explored several techniques designed to help us reframe our narratives and reconnect with our inner strength.

Here are some of the highlights:
The Observer Exercise: This technique encourages us to step back and view our experiences as an impartial observer. By detaching ourselves from the emotions tied to our trauma, we can gain clarity and see our situations in a new light. It’s like watching a movie of your life and realizing that you are not defined by the hardships you’ve endured.

Strength Spotting: Often, GBV survivors struggle to recognize their resilience. Through strength spotting, we identified the qualities that have helped us survive and thrive—courage, perseverance, compassion and more. This exercise reminded us that we are stronger than we think.

Reframing Negative Self-Talk: Many of us carry internalized messages from our trauma, thoughts like “I’m not enough” or “This is all my fault.” We practiced rewriting these narratives, replacing self-criticism with self-compassion. What if, instead of blaming ourselves, we acknowledged that we did the best we could with the resources we had at the time?

Future Self Perspective: We imagined ourselves 5 or 10 years from now, looking back at our current struggles. What advice would our future selves give us? This exercise helped us see that healing is possible and that our pain is not permanent.

Narrative Reconstruction: One of the most powerful parts of the session was reimagining and retelling our stories from a different perspective. Using prompts like chapter titles and letters to our younger selves, we began to rewrite our narratives in ways that honor our resilience and growth.

And oh, how the inner child within us yearns for love and healing!

The Healing Power of Storytelling

Trauma has a way of distorting our narratives, making us feel like victims of our own stories. But what if we could reclaim those narratives? What if we could rewrite our stories in a way that highlights our strength, resilience and capacity for growth? This is the heart of narrative reconstruction, a strategy that allows us to reframe our experiences and find meaning in our pain.

During the session, we engaged in practical activities that allowed us to see our past, present and future selves in a new way. We laughed, we cried and we connected deeply with one another. It was a reminder that healing is not a solitary journey, it is something we do together, as a community.

Key Takeaways: Trauma, Narratives and Healing

The session left us with several profound insights:
● Trauma impacts how we see ourselves and our stories. It can make us feel stuck, powerless and defined by our pain.
● Reframing our narratives is a critical step toward healing. By changing the way we view our experiences, we can reclaim our power and rewrite our stories.
● Healing is not about erasing the past but finding new ways to move forward. It’s about extending grace to ourselves and embracing the journey, one step at a time.

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