As if this war-and-exclusion proclaiming society isn’t violent enough yet, we, as activists, regularly put ourselves voluntarily into situations that confront us with violence – police brutality, arrests, repression. Most of the time we can deal with that just fine, and the experience will turn into a memory, or an anecdote that we will tell at a campfire over and over again. But sometimes, these high-stress events get under our skin. Memories of the event pop up at unexpected moments, we sleep less (and drink more), we find ourselves easily irritated, short-fused or jumpy at the sight of a cops car. And we wonder what is going on…
In this Sustainable Activism workshop, we will take a look at strong reactions that people might experience after high-stress events, such as (police) violence. We will explore the origin as well as the function of these reactions and in the second part of the workshop, we will look at different components of resilience – and how to integrate these in our daily (activist) lives.
Recommendation: participants who have been through high-stress events recently (less than six weeks ago) and are experiencing strong reactions, are encouraged to come together with a well-known and trusted buddy.
Disclaimer: it’s a workshop. It’s not therapy.
