Where in the world is Barb?

Hello friends and strangers!  I am living in Strabane, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland. Strabane sits at the confluence of two rivers right on the border with the Republic of Ireland, equidistant between Derry/Londonderry and Omagh. This is my last semester of graduate school and I’m doing my final field placement here with a non-profit agency called the Koram Centre. The cast of characters are:    Barb  {Masters of Science in Social Work student on her final placement};   Jeff {Director at the Koram Centre, the supervisor whom I’m working immediately under};   Marina {Contracted Clinical Director of the Koram Centre, my clinical supervisor}; and    Mary Anne {Long-term volunteer at Corrymeela, my American social work supervisor} –    Yes, that means I am juggling three supervisors…!     Read about the work I’m doing.

graduation approaches

This will be my last week in Strabane. I am busy doing multiple self-evaluations and feedback forms, which are so tedious and

gravity

I spent a couple hours talking with Jim McLaughlin this afternoon. Jim is the person managing the CPR (Consolidating Positive Relationships) Project, part of the European Union-funded Peace Initiative Programming. He works in an office next door, which is a building the Koram Centre is renting, but has intentions to buy and expand into. I always love the conversations with Jim. He is always teaching me another piece of little-known Irish history. He’s incredibly politically minded and aware. But, when he talks about this stuff, it’s not from a deep emotional place, like when Jeff talks about the subjects. 

Strabane-Lifford Women’s Centre

Today, I gave the introductory sessions for the courses I will teach/ facilitate at the Women’s Centre. I am teaching “Listening Ear” and Basic Counselling Skills, and it’s going to be challenging and enjoyable. These courses are really about personal development and don’t result in certification of any sort. Therefore, I don’t have to worry about not being a certified instructor (tutor – as they call all teachers here). These introductory sessions were simply to introduce myself, let the students know what is expected of them and what to expect. Patricia, the director at the Strabane & Lifford Women’s Centre, was worried because some of the students are coming with their own unresolved issues and she worried about those people in terms of confidentiality and inappropriate self-disclosure. 

learning about agendas

Today a man representing a local Republican ex-prisoner organization, came to meet with my supervisor on a relationship-building mission, and I sat in on the meeting. It was clear there was some tension in the room but I didn’t understand it, since I do not yet have insight into who these different players/organizations are. However, Jeff did not trust him and the way he spoke to him made it clear that he was trying to convince the man that he had insight that he should be open to learning from, and he said some things that came straight from lessons in facilitating restorative dialogue. 

suicide prevention meeting

Tonight I went to an open town meeting about the (incredibly) high rate of suicide in Strabane district, and the prevention measures being planned. It was called by a young girl who lost her sister to suicide about a year ago. She has taken action to spearhead this issue, and talked about various things in a non-focused way. One is, she sought counseling to work through her grief, didn’t have a good experience, didn’t feel better, and thus concluded the town needs more trained counselors, so she herself is going to get trained. When Jeff invited me to this meeting, he explained all her erroneous assumptions made him worry about what her ‘battle cries’ will stir up. For one thing, she is on this mission without having consulted local agencies and professional services. She is raising her voice about the need for a hotline and a 24-hour drop in center. Jeff told me the Koram Centre had a hotline and only got 73 calls over the 3 years it was running. The one sensible thing the girl talked about was needing support groups for families impacted by suicide. Such groups don’t yet exist here.