7 News Belize

Taking Care Of Trauma In a Violent Society
posted (August 10, 2017)
In March, psychotherapist, Dr. Alex Depaz, visited Belize to conduct a training program aimed at teaching people who have lost loved ones to cope with the trauma. Today, Depaz returned to Belize to continue that training, and take it to a much bigger scale. Depaz plans to take the training sessions across the country, so that she can teach as many people as possible the techniques and skills needed to get over the traumatic loss of a loved one. Today Depaz was joined by Belize City Councillor Phillip Willoughby for one of those sessions. We spoke to them, as well as a participant, about the importance of this kind of program...

Dr. Alex Depaz - Psychotherapist
"I was invited to come back and work with my colleague Deborah Seawell who works for LOVE Foundation. We will be working with some of the youths and the kids from Yabra area and the department of youth services. We will be doing some training and do country wide training and helping to change some of the issues that are plaguing Belize currently. My expertise range in trauma, domestic violence, working with sex offenders, sexual violent predators, drug addiction and alcohol abuse, so a variety of things, but we will be targeting trauma, the effect of trauma on the youths and how it impacts their lives."

Phillip Willoughby - City Councillor
"I shared with them, I don't have all the tools or the skills to nurture them back to that point that they can somehow cope and deal with their loss of their loved ones. So to me this is divine intervention through Ms. Seawell and now speaking with Dr. Depaz that she will now be able to provide the grieving family members who loss their loved one that particular or specific skill set, the requisite tools to probably get over this trauma, cope with it."

Ernestine Carballo, artist
"We are a people, are a group that are positive and we are moving forward with the love and with the strength of good energies and it happened to us so we can go out and speak and touch lives and reach out to loved ones. Instead of having them being alone or sad or depressed, they can work a better way or they can do a better thing with the rest of their lives."

The people chosen to participate in the training were chosen by officials from the LOVE Foundation.

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