Community Healing

Overnight I’ve been wondering about how yesterday’s post might be received by readers. I wondered if readers might ask, ‘surely they signposted the woman who shared her long history of trauma, to a service?’  It’s often the first thought for many people, often overlooking the function of community in community healing and restoration. 

After all, who’s to say that being alongside others whilst laughing, dancing, making things, fixing things, and growing things might be just the therapy needed right now? That’s not to say that there is no role for professional support. Of course, there is, but after the work of community is done or when the person would prefer an external listening ear.

We accompanied some community members on a visit to a community centre in Sefton earlier this week and they were really impressed by the playful and community centred listening ear provision there. A kind of counselling that doesn’t make community members feel like they are being fixed. On their terms. Linked to fun and conversation. ‘We want that where we live’, they said. Wrapped around the community, in a way that is welcomed and understood by the community. Where relationships and trust have grown. Where one day they might play bingo together and the next talk about the ghosts in the nursery in a private space. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve been asked by a family therapist to write an article about class for the magazine Context. And that’s in my thoughts most days. 

How could we provide direct access to useful and helpful support in the neighbourhood and recognise too, the importance of art, gardening, dance, and craft as therapies in their own right, as part of community function, rather than prescription? 

Is that even possible in a culture of commissioning that values ‘signposting’ in and out? 

And could we do this without the need for ‘plans’ regardless of how ‘strengths based’ we believe them to be?