Although our participants did to some extent go through this already by just deciding to join and participate in the Lab, there might still have been too big a hurdle for them to really confront themselves and the group and to go deeper into sharing and integrating the arising trauma. In addressing collective trauma, however, it is inevitable to feel, perceive and express unpleasant feelings and experiences. Rather, when criticism arose, we received these in the form of impersonal written messages or indirectly by somebody else. Perhaps as a result of these cultural traits, we did not experience open conflicts in the sessions. In addition, there is strong peer pressure to behave like others. Also, in the Japanese culture, it is considered very important to be respectful and to not disrupt the harmony. In Japan, it is a cultural norm to not talk openly about uncomfortable things. Around the same time, some of the participants also left the Lab.Īnother ongoing challenge was that of the collective trauma not being expressed openly. One big challenge we faced was when two of the three trainees left the team.
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From this last meeting we identified one circle keen to continue meeting and working together to discuss Thomas Hübl’s latest book. One month after the closing of the Lab, we invited all the participants to a meeting to see whether any of the participants were interested in continuing the journey, and if so, how. Each of these small groups, which took place weekly, were facilitated by one of the Facilitation team members. After the eighth session, (from the end of May until the end of June, when we had our last session of the cycle), we had built three small groups. From the fifth session onwards, we extended the time of the main sessions from 90 to 120 minutes, in agreement with the participants. In these additional meetings, we went through the content of the main sessions and practiced 5-sync meditations. In addition to the main sessions of the Lab, we also offered two additional meetings in between the main sessions for participants who were not able to attend the main sessions, but also for those who wanted to deepen the practice. The country has also built power plants on earthquake-prone islands, yet the nation was clearly not prepared to then make effective decisions to minimize the pollution and protect its people or the rest of the world when the Fukushima accident took place. It is important to note that Japan is the only nation that has experienced the atomic bomb. The accident in the Japanese Fukushima power plant in 2011 – and the limitations of how the Japanese society coped with it – brings to light one of the issues that is not yet integrated from Japan’s history. Instead, there is a general tendency in Japan to avoid confrontation and to instead keep up with the prevailing opinions. The Japanese education system has been shaping young people to follow orders, to be precise and to fit into the given system, yet when it comes to thinking independently and taking initiatives to change things in the establishment, there is little in terms of schooling and preparedness. Here we first present some key characteristics that describe the country setting in which the traumas that this Lab addressed are situated.
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“I think the essence of healing has been the effort to rewrite that narrative to something more loving, forgiving and kind.This Lab looked at trauma in the context of Japan. “My mother’s voice saying, ‘You’re worthless, you’re unlovable, you’re stupid,’ ” she said. Reframing: Foo said it was important to reframe the damaging stories she’d been fed as a child.Increasingly, expressive arts therapies employing movement, music or visual arts, are being used to help patients find more adaptive ways to cope, said Cécile Rêve, co-founder of ARTrelief, a center that provides these arts-based therapies. Mind-body therapy: Somatic, or body-based therapies such as yoga, have been found to be effective for trauma.A patient may have internalized the belief they’re not good enough, “but upon unpacking it, they can see how their parents’, and maybe even their parents’ parents’, constant criticisms and lack of warmth or praise is the source of this belief.” Awareness: Jason Wu, a Bay Area psychologist and child of refugee parents, said the first step is building awareness.