Recovery

Restoring Hope

When catastrophe hits, no matter whether it’s a personal trauma, a serious reversal for the organisation or a major external disaster, it can be hard to pick up confidence again. The ripples of any catastrophic event inevitably spread out across families and communities.

In the immediate aftermath people cope - heroically. Even so, they often report feeling that they are on ‘automatic pilot’ and that their emotions are somewhere else, so tangled and shocked that it can feel impossible to describe them.

It can feel like the very ground beneath one’s feet has given way, without warning, and without leaving any instructions about how to get back on firm ground again. With this devastating sense of having lost control comes a loss of direction, of purpose and of confidence. This is a normal response to extreme events.

Without recognition of what they have been through and how it has changed them, there is a risk of becoming isolated, of turning to addictive and self-harming behaviours, or of trying to repress feelings of low self-worth which nonetheless invade every aspect of their lives. The impact on themselves and on others can be devastating. It can pass on down the generations.

People need support at intervals over the long-term to re-story those experiences and feelings into a purposeful narrative that enables them to see themselves as having changed for the better through adversity. They need to see themselves as having gained more (in effectiveness, in resilience and in wisdom) than they lost.

Maggie White at Herculeia addresses recovery in the following ways:

  • Restoring hope.
  • Working towards the most comprehensively inclusive future for all, paying attention to the interplay of social, cultural and economic elements which make for ongoing sustainability
  • Working towards overcoming power imbalances which are often compelling drivers of discord.
  • Building strengths across the system in order to achieve better outcomes throughout.
  • Ensuring that everyone in the system can participate and feel heard.
  • Identifying areas of opportunity for what can be achieved.
  • Focusing on the areas of highest energy.

Encouraging and supporting leadership skills.

A good community ensures itself by trust, by good faith and good will, by mutual help. A good community, in other words, is a good local economy.
Wendell Berry