Institute for Healing of Memories

Second and final in a series by guest author Dot Walsh

Using his own experience to connect with victims of violence and trauma, Father Michael Lapsley sees himself as a wounded healer:

“My visible brokenness creates a bond with others whose brokenness is often less visible but just as real. The truth is that pain unites human beings. In my work as a healer, many people say they can trust me because I know pain.”

In 1998, Lapsley came to the United States and began working with non-profits providing programs for victims of domestic violence. He helped establish the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) as a non-profit with partnerships in this country and has worked with veterans through an organization called the Warrior to Citizen Campaign. He trains facilitators to set up workshops for veterans, many of whom are homeless or living in transitional housing.

Creating a safe environment for the workshops is essential because many participants, especially veterans, carry layers of pain they are unwilling to share with strangers. Since telling one’s story is the beginning of the healing process, trust has to be developed so that a person can feel comfortable enough to talk openly. One veteran described this process as “peeling the onion of my pain.”

Listening carefully and then acknowledging someone’s pain is a next step. As Lapsley explained, without acknowledging the pain, there can be no healing. One veteran who spoke in a recent workshop told people this was the first time in 41 years he was able to talk openly about what he experienced in war.

I came away from my interview with Lapsley with an understanding of the commonalities of all the trauma rooted in our commonality as one human family and of the importance of telling our stories and having them acknowledged.

The effects of trauma can leave a person as a victim or as a victor depending on the choice made. Fr. Lapsley says, “In the end, what matters most is whether we are able to transform pain into a life-giving force.”

Dot Walsh is a lifelong peace activist and member of the Engaging Peace board of directors

By guest author Dot Walsh

“UBUNTU” in the Xhosa culture means: “I am because we are.”

On Veterans Day, November 11, it is good to recognize that many of the women and men who have served at war in Afghanistan and other foreign countries return to their homes without adequate support for the trauma they have experienced.

Trauma is an invisible wound. We have learned a lot about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have identified it in individuals engaged in current wars. But soldiers who returned from Vietnam and Korea often remain victims of their pain and sometimes victimize others.

A recent visit, interview, and workshop with Father Michael Lapsley of South Africa gave me some insight into the effects of trauma and the possibility of healing. Father Lapsley is an Anglican priest from New Zealand who experienced his own trauma as a result of his active participation in speaking out against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

In 1973 during the height of apartheid, he was sent by his order to Durban, South Africa, to serve as chaplain for both black and white university students. As a witness to the atrocities and injustices of apartheid, he began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained, and tortured.

Because of his public stand against the government, his life was threatened. It became necessary for him to leave the country and go into exile in Zimbabwe. In 1990, he received a letter bomb that was hidden inside two religious magazines. The bomb exploded with a force that blew off both of his hands and blinded him in one eye, along with covering his body with serious burns.

After a long recovery in Australia, he returned to South Africa to become chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, which became part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This work led to the creation of the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM), an organization that focuses on individuals who tell their stories in workshops where they can begin to work through their trauma.

[to be continued]

Dot Walsh is a lifelong peace activist and member of the Engaging Peace board of directors.

Healing of trauma, Part 2

Father Michael Lapsley addresses the healing of trauma, Part 1