SGP: A Healing Tool
When working with trauma survivors, I try to observe the SGP principles of (Making space, offering grace, and respecting pace). I found this to be a helpful approach in many contexts and with people from diverse backgrounds.
I hope you find it useful in bonding with the people you work with, as it is the human connection that I believe is the most important source of healing.
- Making space means that the “healing environment” needs to be one that is inviting, inclusive and inter-personally safe. Both me, as a caregiver, and those individuals, families, and communities I care for, need to feel safe around each other. Safety is not a given, especially when there is a trauma story in the background. Rather, it is a culture that we build together when we focus on trust, validation, and empowerment.
- Offering grace is to show care and compassion towards self and others. This comes from unconditionally respecting the basic dignity and shared humanity of everyone, and to be both decent and graceful when confronted with different beliefs, practices, or viewpoints.
- Respecting pace can be a tricky slippery slope to navigate. On one hand, it is true that we cannot force or expedite healing, and that we need to respect people’s style and speed of their recovery journeys, yet on the other hand, it is important to not remain silent when witnessing someone struggle alone. To make sure that we are neither intrusive nor neglectful of human suffering is an art worth mastering.
I hope you find it useful in bonding with the people you work with, as it is the human connection that I believe is the most important source of healing.
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