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Protecting a survivor when she reports what happened to her ( continued )
SAID ALOUD
Aim . To practise how to accompany a survivor who decides to tell her story .
Trainer . Let me introduce a new role play .
Role Play 6 . How to support a survivor when she tells her story . ( 15 minutes .)
Form pairs . One of you plays the role of Helper and the other the role of a Survivor who has decided to report her experience . When you are the Helper :
• Check whether the Survivor is ready to tell her story and understands the risks .
• Make sure that you have talked about her human rights . Refer to the human rights values listed on page 31 .
• Practise the stop signal and saying no . Advise the Survivor to talk in headlines .
• Help the Survivor to tell the story of her trauma . Remind her to avoid details . Keep her in the present .
ROLE PLAY EXERCISE
PART II : THE TRAINING
After a few minutes , change roles .
At the end of the exercise , remember to brush off your role , and take off your scarf if you are the Survivor .
After the exercise , the Trainer will give you time to ask questions and discuss .
Trainer . Let us continue .
The Butterfly Woman was getting better as the days passed . Nevertheless , she had problems with nightmares and she asked for help . The helper said : “ The function of dreaming is to process what happens in our lives when we are awake . Nightmares are our most difficult dreams . When you have nightmares about your rape , you are reliving the trauma . Often one wakes up when the nightmare is at its worst . When this happens your body and mind cannot finish making sense of what happened , so the nightmare tends to repeat itself . When we dream we cannot move . This paralysis can continue even after waking up from a nightmare , and can be very scary and triggering . The darkness of night can itself be triggering . Sometimes the trauma happened at night . In the dark it ’ s also difficult to orient oneself and ascertain whether the situation is dangerous or not .”
Because of her dreams , the Butterfly Woman was afraid to go to bed . The helper told her that she could do things to improve her sleep . She said it was important to develop good routines . They talked about what could be done and the helper made a list of important things that the Butterfly Woman could do at home to help herself sleep and to cope with nightmares .