The Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling

As a counseling psychologist, Dr. Linda Marcell has developed a three level trauma counseling curriculum that is being used in her mobile school called “Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling” which is being taken into various war-torn and impoverished areas to train pastors, health care and other professionals in crisis intervention and trauma counseling from a biblical prospective. The mobile school was developed as a crisis intervention program to alleviate the emotional pain and suffering of those traumatized by war, extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases and other atrocities facing the nation of Uganda and other countries in East Africa.


Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling Curriculum

 

The Program Description

Program Purpose and Objectives

The overall purpose of this training program is to serve as a resource to local churches, ministries, NGOs and other sectors to equip Christian people helpers and professionals with basic counseling skills from a Christian perspective, and help pastors, church leaders and professionals to deal with their own trauma. Though the trainings are Christian based, they can be contextualized for a non-Christian setting.

Specifically, the program will help the participants:

  • Relieve their traumatic experiences and feelings by sharing with each other.
  • Identify the different forms and nature of trauma that are being experienced
  • Identify and practice various skills as they are processing their own experiences.
  • Equip participants with skills to help those traumatized by the internal conflicts, wars, extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
  • Offer participants practical hands on opportunities to apply skills learned through supervised role play and possible field outreaches
  • To enlighten the participants about the relevance of the gospel of Christ to the suffering and pain of their people.

 

          Program Methodology/Activities

There are two primary ways by which the program will be implemented:

  1. In-context training:   As a mobile school of counseling, a team of counselors will travel to the locations of turmoil and trauma, bringing together pastors, leaders and professionals in that region to a specified area for a four to five day school of trauma counseling. Whereas not required, the ideal setting would be a residential retreat or conference center that would enable participants to have a refreshing atmosphere as an oasis that is conducive for learning away from their normal environment.  However, the trainings work well as a non-residential course where students will travel to day venue as a day-school setting.
    • A follow-up school of counseling can be held later in the year to evaluate learning and progress as well as to begin the second level of trauma
      counseling training.
  • A second and third level of training will be offered to build upon the skills already learned.  Practical hands-on experiences in the area of counseling will be done as visitations will be made to IDP and refugee camps, homes, shelters and other fields as practicum.
  1. Out-of-context training offers the school of trauma counseling within the Uganda area, bringing together pastors, leaders and professionals from across the Great Lakes Region to a center in Kampala for mutual learning and equipping of basic trauma counseling skills.
  1. Other:  The curriculum has been designed in such a way that it can be adapted to be used in other ways that will meet the specific needs of any group.

            Goals of the School

  • Enable the participants to understand and internalize for themselves the process of grieve and trauma;
  • Enable the participants to consciously manage their grief and trauma by equipping them with skills for re-telling their experiences;
  • Equip the participants with basic counseling skills to encourage and share the love and care of Jesus Christ among traumatized men, women and children in their region.
  • Reproduce trained counselors/people helpers who can assist in meeting the overwhelming needs of those traumatized by the internal conflicts, wars, and HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Great Lakes Region.
  • Develop a data base of trained counselors/people helpers who will also be trainers within the school of trauma counseling.

About the Curriculum:

Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling Level 1:

The first level of the training consists of approximately 30 hours of teaching using the handbook compiled and written by Dr. Linda Marcell, a counseling psychologist serving as a missionary in Uganda.  She also uses the book, “Healing the Wounds of Trauma:  How the Church Can Help,” by Margaret Hill, Harriet Hill Richard Bagge, as a supplement to the handbook.  Students are expected to have a copy of both books.

The major goals of level 1 training is to help participants to grasp a good understanding of what Christian Counseling is and how it differs from secular counseling. It also seeks to lay a strong Biblical foundation of understanding how we as Christians view suffering, and learn how to use the Word of God appropriately in counseling.

Topics Covered in Level 1:

  • Understanding the Ministry of Christian Counseling
  • How Do We View Suffering
  • Understanding Trauma
  • Understanding the Grieving Process
  • Counseling with  Abused Women And Children
  • Learning to Take Your Pain to the Cross
  • Forgiveness in the Healing Process

Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling Level 2:

The second level of the training consists of approximately 36 hours of teaching using the level 2 handbook compiled and written by Dr. Linda Marcell.  This level is a very intense training on skills, ethics and principles governed by the counseling profession.

Topics Covered in Level 2:

  • What is Counseling, its aims, process and approaches?
  • Basic Counseling Skills for People Helpers
  • Ethics and Principles of Counseling
  • Effective Counseling Skills for Trauma Symptoms
  • How Can We Minister in the Midst of HIV/AIDS?
  • Promoting Healing Through Support Groups
  • Self-Care for People-Helpers

Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling Level 3:

The third level of the training consists of approximately 36 hours of teaching using the level 3 handbook compiled and written by Dr. Linda Marcell.  This level of training focuses on crisis intervention, counseling children of war, and review counseling skills learned from level 1 and 2.

Topics Covered in Level 3

  • Introduction to Crisis Intervention
  • The Dynamics of Crisis
  • Impact of War on Children
  • Counseling the Wounded Child
  • Recovering from Loss
  • Stress Management
  • Basic Counseling Skills Review

Outcomes from the Ray of Hope Trauma Counseling Training

The outcomes from this training:

  • Several forms of trauma will be identified, especially relating to war, up-rooted-ness and HIV/AIDS and others.
  • Basic counseling skills will be learned and implemented during role-playing and supervised practicum so that participants will not only learn how to apply skills in dealing with their own trauma and pain, but also to help others
  • A data base of trainers will be developed as participants successfully go through the school.
  • Capacity building for future crusade against trauma and crisis catastrophe
  • Curriculum for trauma counseling training will be obtained for participants to utilize as a valuable tool and resource.

Summary of where we have been working:

 

 

In February 2005, Dr. Linda Marcell was invited by Mrs. Vivian Kityo (former National President of the Mother’s Union and founder of Wakisa Team Pregnancy Crisis Center), to be a part of a trauma counseling team that would travel to Kitgum, Northern Uganda to do a week long trauma counseling training among 50 pastors primarily from the Anglican Church. After hearing about the ongoing attacks of the LRA, this field project was sponsored by Church Missions Society, which is a missions organization based in England as an attempt to alleviate the emotional pain of those pastors in the area who had been victimized and traumatized by the violence.

The trauma counseling team consisted of three counselors: Mrs. Vivian Kityo, Mrs. Theodora Niringiye both of Kampala, Uganda and Dr. Linda Marcell from the U.S.
During the week long training, it was very apparent that the participants had suffered much trauma and all of them were currently living in IDP camps. 

Also in 2005, Dr. Marcell, was called to Kigali, Rwanda by local pastors to assist them in dealing with Genocide Recovery.  At that time, Dr. Marcell developed the school of trauma counseling curriculum and in 2006-2007, fifty participants, who were pastors, medical personnel, counselors and teacher were trained.


Dr. Leara Lee from U.S. teaches on trauma
In Level 3 training in Rwanda

The Ray of Hope School of Trauma Counseling has also been held in Uganda, graduating its first class in June, 2008 at His Grace Christian Church where Pastor Abel Kamukama is the senior Pastor.


Pastor Kamukama receives his certificate during
graduation ceremony with R.D.C. Mrs. Alice Muwanguzi

By the end of 2008 we had trained two other groups of pastors from the Makindye West Bumu Pastor’s Fellowship. They have also completed all three levels of the trainings.

Also in April of the 2008, The Uganda Counseling Association contacted Dr. Marcell for assistance in coordinating a crisis intervention outreach to assist those families, teachers and students who were affected by the Budo Boarding School fire which killed 20 children, ages 8 – 10 years old.  Dr. Marcell trained over 100 counselors from around the Kampala area in crisis intervention who helped in reaching out to those affected by the Budo Tragedy. From that experience, Dr. Marcell was asked to organize the course Critical Incident Stress Management which she taught with Dr. Sabrina Black in June, 2009.

 Others Counseling Trainings Available:

  • Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM):  An internationally recognized model of group crisis intervention.
  • Stress Management
  • Grief Counseling
  • Pastoral Crisis Intervention
  • Signs and Symptoms of Addictions
  • Counseling Those Who Have Been Abused
  • Counseling The Wounded Child
  • Others

Current Needs:
Because we have seen first hand, the impact that this training has had on the lives of the participants who have taken it, we believe that this training could be used in a greater way to effect positive change in the psychological and spiritual well being of the citizens of Uganda.  For this cause we are seeking the following:

  1. The curriculum to be accepted and recognized in some way by the national government as a credible crisis intervention training program.

Assistance in resource mobilization so that this program can be made available on a larger scale to reach the people in need of such training