Psychological Support and Counselling
Wings of Hope for trauma offers psychological support and counselling for clients suffering from trauma-related symptoms and disorders. The professional team that supports these individuals are specialized in trauma counselling and treatment. Approaches to treatment include both individual and group sessions.
Individual counselling sessions focus solely on the individual. Individuals are given the space to explore their thoughts and feelings, and they are assissted in learning about and expressing themselves, in order to improve their quality of life. The organization offers trauma therapeutic and trauma pedagogical support, based on the KReST-model (body-, resource- and system-oriented trauma therapy), by Lutz Ulrich Besser, director of the Center for Psychotraumatology and Trauma Therapy in Lower Saxony, Germany, which emphasizes working on the body and the resources of the individual. The therapy is conducted with the help of a screening technique (ZPTN). This technique involves reliving traumatic experiences of the past in a detailed manner and in a safe environment. Feelings, sensations and reactions of the body as well as thoughts and evaluations that occur during the reflection are then integrated into the adult consciousness as events of the past (trauma synthesis).
In addition to the individual sessions, the organization also offers group counselling sessions. Group sessions are a form of psychological support in which a group of clients facing similar problems meet regularly with the supervision of a psychologist or social worker. The group offers a safe space that is free of judgement for clients to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and in turn receive mutual support and comfort from other members of the group. In addition, group members provide different perspectives when viewing certain problems. By listening to how others view their problems and how they are handling them, individuals start to view their own struggles from a different point of view and as a result incorporate new strategies in dealing with them. Moreover, groups act as a support network. Many people experiencing mental health difficulties believe that they are the only ones struggling with such problems; therefore, hearing others talk about their struggles and realizing that they are not alone can be relieving.