Summer is almost over, and Seun Edagbami-Olota has finished her research assignment for the Helping Hand project. This is an update from her exciting period as the HOPE worldwide Canada intern in Toronto when she interviewed Stephen Chadwick, a psychotherapist who provides treatment to trauma victims in Toronto.
The internship has been a big learning experience. I have been taught so much about time management, organization, communication over the past two months. It has also challenged me to work more on improving myself. It was a great opportunity to learn so much about war or violence trauma or just trauma itself from people who have worked directly with refugees and people that have experienced traumatic events.
My third and last meeting was with Stephen Chadwick. He speaks French, Russian, Ukrainian and English. He did not work with a lot of refugees but just like my experience with Raika and Rostyslav I had learned so much about trauma therapy.
He has worked with a lot of people who have trauma. People from Afghanistan that have experienced war, people that have been beaten, neglected as children.
He usually starts with letting them talk about the traumatic events they have experienced at their own pace. Then he asks what kind of experiences they have had and how it affects them. If they are having flashbacks, nightmares hyper arousal, hyper vigilance, depression, anxiety and much more.
He then does some grounding exercises to reduce their anxiety and talks them through the memories they have left of their experiences. He has worked with all kinds of people but he thinks it is difficult to work with children below the age of 10 or 9 because children have a hard time conceptualizing how they feel.
The Children and war therapy program would be really helpful. It is hard to function normally when your resources have been overwhelmed by traumatic experience. He would be interested in receiving training in Canada and Ukraine.