Wellbeing Support
This is a compilation of Mental Health & Coaching Support resources that are provided by volunteers and are therefore available free of charge to Indigo volunteers and partner teams.
To ensure a variety of needs are covered, we have tried to offer different types of support. While some trainers focus more on general emotional assistance, others might have a more clinical or academic background. In case a volunteer is facing severe repercussions from experiencing trauma, a more long-term approach to psycho-social support might be necessary. In case you require more intensive and long-term psychological support, please contact your GP at home.
Please note that all the sessions are confidential, can remain anonymous, and available to you at no cost during & after your placement :)
Mental Health Support
Human Rights & Social Responsibility Committee
Most field volunteers face tough challenges in having to adjust and integrate into a new stressful context as well as to readapting to normal life when leaving a field team. We believe that every volunteer who joins a field has the right to professional psycho-social mental health support regardless of the project they will be joining or the support provided by their country group. This programme provides someone you can turn to for support and give you the space to debrief, express yourself freely in a space that is objective and confidential. The programme consists of therapists who are members of EAGT who are willing to listen to you in one-on-one sessions. Gestalt Therapy is a holistic, humanistic therapeutic approach, which offers support creatively and aesthetically promotes awareness, presence and growth, to learn or discover skills that will help the client to deal with personal difficulties, learn to take responsibility for one's own feelings and decisions.
Languages:
English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Spanish
Sarah Helander
I am a music psychotherapist and humanitarian aid worker with international and multicultural experience. I grew up in Finland and have lived in different countries for the past 12 years, working mainly in the medical setting and with displaced communities. I am specialized in trauma treatment and in creating trauma-informed community-based mental health and psychosocial support services (CB MHPSS). I work with a holistic, person-centered, and integrative therapeutic approach to create together with you a safe space where you can connect with your emotions, needs, motivations, challenges etc. My goal is to provide a nonjudgmental space for you to share and find resources to take care of yourself and the things you are holding. Sessions can also focus on self-care practices, work/life balance, adjusting after returning from volunteering, wellbeing and support for teams.
Languages:
English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
Justine Johnson-Yurchak
I am Justine Johnson-Yurchak, an English teacher who is currently using her background in working with children to travel the world and create global connections. I graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a BS is Psychological and Brain Sciences and a minor in Applied Psychology. I am certified in Psychological First Aid and have a wide range of experience working with different marginalized communities. I hope to offer a safe space to discuss challenges, anxieties, stressors, difficult experiences, or whatever else you may need. I believe that everyone holds the answers to what they are facing within themselves, and through careful consideration and guidance, we can overcome most anything.
Languages:
English
Stella Velkavrh
Would you like a safe space to become curious about yourself? Are you interested in adding therapy as one of your own support tools? I am eager to hear about your experience as a volunteer. What comes up for you when you are on or off the field? I have been given the approval to start my practice as a therapist in training from the Norwegian Gestalt Institute. Next to my practice I would like to dedicate some time to volunteering. I am offering pro bono therapy sessions to anyone who wants to embark on this journey of self-reflection. My educational background is in Psychology, whereas further education in Gestalt approach has allowed me to deepen my understanding of what is happening with me right now. It focuses on what is present here and now rather than what happened to us in the past. Through increased self-awareness we can observe how past experiences affect us in the present moment and what choices we have in how we respond to our current environment. As a student therapist I am required to attend supervision regularly to ensure the quality of work I provide for my clients. The purpose of supervision is to support me in gaining additional insight and knowledge about myself and the gestalt method and see new possibilities for development, as well as informing the institute and regulating student’s practical work. Norwegian gestalt institute employs supervisors with expertise in supervising clients. I take my responsibility to protect your personal information, and my practice follows the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation. The duty of confidentiality also applies in connection with supervision.
Languages:
English
Coaching Support
Daniella Watson
Dr Daniella Watson is a Health Psychologist mainly working with women from Townships in South Africa. She coaches health professionals and volunteers to reflect on their practice and train them in communication skills to support their client in behaviour change. She would like to offer her interactive coaching and training to Indigo volunteers.
Languages:
English
Coach Activism
CoachActivism is a collective of Coaches who are aiming to provide the necessary tools and support that is needed to improve the experience of the volunteers. Examples of ways in which they can assist are: - Creating a safe space for expression of feelings, worries, fears, hopes - Defining goals, outcomes, imagined futures, desired situations - Building resilience, confidence, empowerment - Adopting practices that nurture and promote wellness and well-being - Understanding and exploring - Acceptance - Improving work/life balance - Improvement of skills
Languages:
English
Athina Avagianou
I was born and raised in Athens and my origin is from Lesvos Island. I studied Law and until 2016 I worked as a legal advisor in large companies. In 2016 I moved to Madrid for family reasons and I met Coaching for the first time. It’s there that I find out that there are options even when everything seems deadlocked. That the difficulties are not permanent. That happiness is an inner, personal choice. There I realize how much I believe in the power that all people, without exception, hide inside them, how much I am attracted by the idea of contributing to the inner evolution of people and of having a positive effect, even the slightest, on their lives. That is where what we call a change of career takes place, with all the challenges that this entails. I was trained in Madrid, I was certified by the ICF (International Coach Federation) and somehow, I am now a coach. Up to now I have worked with men and women dealing with lissue like career and relationships, lack of self esteem, finding their purpose and working on achieving their goals dealing with changes in their life.
Languages:
English, Greek, Spanish
Brigid Greene
Support for Community Volunteers (in multiple languages)
Amna help people regain their resilience and rediscover feelings of joy and belonging by supporting individuals, organisations and refugee communities to run safe spaces for restorative group activities. They run programmes that address different aspects of the wellbeing of individuals who have been displaced.
They also offer a selection of self-care audio clips, available in Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Greek and Urdu.
Talk to us off the Record
This website has links to audio and video wellbeing resources in lots of languages designed with the refugee community in mind.
Mindfulness in Arabic
The Mindfulness in Arabic project (MiA) aims to build a website that will offer an eight-week Mindfulness course in Arabic, designed for refugees and people in transition. Any person with internet access may enter the website, free of charge, anywhere around the world. The course will provide practical tools and exercises tailored specifically to support a shaken population that suffered traumas of fear, death and extreme violence. أن يزود مشروع اليقظة باللغة العربية "ميا - MiA " دورة يقظة باللغة العربية على مدار ثمانية أسابيع, مصممة خصيصا للاجئين والنازحين. كل شخص مزود بالإنترنت يمكنه دخول الموقع مجانا أينما كان في جميع أنحاء العالم. هذه الدورة ستوفر أدوات عملية وتمارين ملائمة خصيصا لدعم الأشخاص والمجتمعات التي تعاني مِن صدمات الخوف, الموت والعنف على أشكاله
Play for Progress Activity Book
An activity book for youth with psycho-social trauma techniques such as breathing, processing feelings, colouring in etc. It is designed by Play for Progress who use creative therapies to support unaccompanied minors. It is mostly in English but you do not need language for lots of it. This has been suggested as an activity for parents to complete with their children.
Safe Space
A free app that has been developed by Save the Children Sweden’s psychologists and is now available for download in Greece. The app is available in several languages (Arabic, Somali, Farsi, English etc.) and is made for children and youth who have experienced trauma to help them with anxiety, but can of course be used by anyone.