You will not know what is happening internally with a survivor without inquiring. Checking in with survivors during a specific time or times each day will help you immensely when determining their baseline behavior. Navigating the internal landscape for survivors is often a challenge. More often than not, they are not in touch with their own emotions. Education and direction in assessing their emotional state must be given in order to accurately determine where they are at that point in their healing journey or for even that day.
When performing check-ins, use a scale of 1-10; 1 being the poorest most awful internal experience and 10 being the best most wonderful. Using a scale such as this to gauge emotions quantifies the experience of the individual and begins to illustrate to them what and how they are feeling. (If I am a 3 today, I can strive to be a 7 tomorrow.)
What is also helpful instruction from you as the Advocate would be the lesson of
identifying emotions. Have an Emotion Wheel such as the one below in order to better help survivors. Once they can identify their emotions they can learn to let the feelings come and go as waves in the ocean. It will be tough for many survivors because we used drugs in order to numb ourselves from our own emotions and experiences. This is a new behavior that at first will seem scary, but remind them that it's okay to be fearful of an action not yet performed but the results will be beneficial.
Once they can identify their emotions they can learn to let the feelings come and go as waves in the ocean. It will be tough for many survivors because we used drugs in order to numb ourselves from our own emotions and experiences. This is a new behavior that at first will seem scary, but remind them that it's okay to be fearful of an action not yet performed but the results will be beneficial.
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