Standing is NOAH Social Worker, Claudia Roodt with NOAH residents, Natalie Fabbing with David Waggenstroon who underwent the Trauma Informed First Responders course conducted at the Woodstock branch.
Image: Wesley Ford
Seniors living at the Neighbourhood Old Age Home (NOAH) non-profit in Woodstock attended a psychological first aid course aimed at improving their relationships in the shared home and their communities.
NOAH social worker and therapist Claudia Roodt held an eight-week course called the Trauma Informed First Responders course with 16 senior citizens living at the NOAH branch in Woodstock.
Ms Roodt says the concept of this course came from an overseas model called the “Self healing community model”.
“What it means is that most of us are living in communities which are trauma driven, so how do we move people from being trauma and violence driven to healing driven,” she says.
Ms Roodt has previously hosted this course as a four-day programme in Lavender Hill.
It covers four main aspects including understanding your owning your trauma; understanding your nervous system; what is trauma; and what is the role of the first responder.
“The role of the first responder is two things, to help your nervous system to calm down; if I am calm then I have space for you, if people can do that for each other in their families and communities, in their streets, we will have fewer people that would resort to violence and it starts with me knowing my own story first,” she says.
At Noah, Ms Roodt says she encountered seniors from the ages of 60 to 85, who have never had access to therapy or counselling, “And now they are expected to live harmoniously with others in a house."
For the seniors, she adapted this course to eight half days stretched over eight weeks from February until April every Wednesdays. “It was amazing to see how they took the time to understand their own story and some even worked through their own trauma and they are now called NOAH first responders, where they can take what they learn, to help make space for someone in distress,” she says.
Natalie Fabing,66, originally from Hout Bay, who has been living at the Woodstock NOAH house for three years, describes this course as absolute “magic.”
“This course taught me about how to make space for others, it taught me how to stop myself, to first read my own body language, it allows me to read what is going on with the next person, so if they are feeling anxious, then I will perhaps leave them until they are ready to speak at another time”
Ms Fabing says she learnt more about considering other people’s feelings. “We may never know how the next person feels when they wake up, so we give them space.”
Another NOAH resident, David Waggenstroon, 68, previously from Atlantis, who has been living at the Woodstock home for 18 months, says attending the course was a “wonderful experience”.
“We live in a world with real people, with real problems and I don’t have all the answers especially with living with different people and I had to discover myself,” he says.
Mr Waggenstroon says this course also helps with developing good communication skills and understanding of each other, especially when living in a shared house.
Ms Roodt says she will continue to run the course at the different Noah homes in Stellenbosch, Maitland and Athlone, starting from later this month.