Long-Term Healing Support Group
CCSJ’s victims services and outreach teams observed that many community members were holding trauma from anti-Asian hate or non-hate incidents they experienced many years ago. To address this need, the victims services team created a long-term healing support group held in Chinese. Many of the support group participants are middle-aged and elderly Chinese immigrants who primarily speak Chinese.
The support group consists of several sessions facilitated by a team of victims advocates. Each session is one and a half hours long. The sessions cover different topics, with an emphasis on community-building, wellness, and a growth mindset. The size of the support group is kept small, to about eight participants, to aid in building familiarity and safety among the group.
The facilitators create an environment for support group members to feel comfortable being vulnerable and sharing about their experiences. And despite the support group’s focus on serious topics, the facilitators intentionally build in light and joy into the sessions to support the group’s healing. For example, the sessions include icebreakers and games to engage support group members in team-building and physical movement. In one session, the facilitators incorporated wellness trivia into a game to help the group review what they had learned in prior sessions. Participants answered questions about many topics, including the layered impacts of a harmful incident, healthy coping skills, and how to talk to someone who has been harmed. Facilitators also built a culture of recognizing participants’ strengths to build their confidence and combat the harm that incidents can have on self-esteem.
TAGS