Introducing “Sexual Violence Against Boys and Men in War, Conflict, and Migration – A Mental Health Manual for Helpers.” This essential manual is designed to equip helpers and healthcare providers with the tools needed to support boys and men who have survived sexual abuse in the context of war, conflict, or migration.
We hope that this manual will be useful in your work and that you will benefit from the knowledge presented in it. The manuals can be found in: English, Norwegian, Nepali and Spanish.
Sexual violence against boys and men in War, conflict and migration
Introduction to “Sexual violence against boys and men in War, conflict and migration” manual by Nora Sveaass: is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo (UiO).
1. Welcome to the first tutorial.
This is a short introduction to the manual. This part gives you a general idea of the intention for making the manual, where to download it, how it is out lined and how to read it. Page 1-6 in the manual.
2. Why the human rights based approach?
Understanding the experiences of participants and survivors in terms of rights and their violation may be creative and bring insights, and can give survivors and their helpers valuable tools. Awareness of human rights, and their great importance for everyone, can be a valuable resource when working with people whose rights have been brutally disrespected. Human rights values may assist us both to understand the suffering we encounter and find ways to respond to it in a respectful and helpful way.
3. How to be a good helper?
What is a good helper in your community? What are the tools we already use and what are the new tools we can acquire from the manual.
4. Helping the helper
This tutorial is about how to support the helpers. For helper’s empathy is an essential aspect of good assistance. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization or secondary traumatic stress. Early recognition and awareness are crucial to be resilient to these symptoms.
5. The window of tolerance
Katinka Salvesen is a clinical psychologist working with trauma patients at the Modum Bad Clinic in Oslo. Among other, she is an experienced trainer, working with helpers and survivors of sexual violence in Congo. In this tutorial she will introduce the window of tolerance as a therapeutic metaphor that we can use to explain trauma reactions.This tutorial is the first of a series of three.