Cebu, Bohol journos undergo trauma support session

At least 30 journalists from Cebu, Bohol and Tacloban shared their experiences of dealing with tragedy both from their sources and their own while covering the devastation caused by supertyphoon Yolanda and the earthquake last year.

The session was sponsored by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) who facilitated the exchanges among the media practitioners last Saturday.

NUJP Chairperson Rowena Carranza-Paraan said the activity is different from stress debriefing because it was a trauma support among peers  which enabled Cebu and Bohol media practitioners help each other cope with their experiences.

The participants were divided into groups of five to six and each of them vented their frustrations while recounting the events of the tragic calamities.

PEER SUPPORT

“This is not stress debriefing since we do not have professionals helping out. Instead we call this peer support as our fellow journalists release their feelings from the crisis to each other,” Paraan said during the session.

EXPOSURE

The facilitators are all practicing journalists who underwent trained under the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a New-York based institution focusing on journalists and the trauma they experience through exposure to difficult situations. The facilitators offered feedback to the participants and asked them to cite lessons out of the experience.

Paraan also lectured on how a person accumulates trauma, how it is passed to other people in his or her circle as well as its coping mechanisms.

She said the activity will help the participants “ask more sensible questions” since they can now “relate better to the victims of disaster.” “Journalists unlike what other media practitioners think are not stress-proof. An experience will always have its impact on you and how you cover the story,” she said. The participants were taught techniques on how to deal with stress during work such as simple breathing routines and floor exercises.

Pauline Apilado, an editor of Lifestyle Asia magazine, also demonstrated basic yoga poses to the participants.

NUJP also organized a similar activity for journalists in the provinces of Leyte and Samar last December and another session for the Panay media in the following month.

The activity was also part of the group’s initiative dubbed “Tabang Media,” to help local journalists and media outlets affected by the calamities through financial, medical and psychosocial assistance.