A program based on a more holistic approach helps people find relief from traumatic experiences.
by Katherine Jamieson
When Pat Cane was first invited to Nicaragua in 1988, during the
height of the civil war, she believed she would be working on an art festival. A psychologist, educator
and artist in her late 40s, Cane had much to contribute to the solidarity project for a local
community center. Though they appreciated her art, what people really wanted to know about
were the body practices she did each morning. "They said to me, 'Your art's great, but teach us
what you do for yourself," she remembers.
Though she had not yet even formally trained in massage therapy, Cane ended up teaching tai
chi and acupressure to people in the village—and, before she knew it, a movement was born. Inspired
by the powerful activism she saw around her, Cane called the group Capacitar, a Spanish
verb meaning to bring life and empower, and modeled the program after the popular education
method developed by Paolo Friere.
The Start of Something
Since 1988, Capacitar has helped thousands of people in more than 30 countries around the
world begin healing from the traumatic experiences of war, sexual and physical abuse, natural
disaster, genocide and massacre. The group's guiding principle is "body literacy," which Cane
describes as "taking Friere's work to the level of the body to access the deeper wisdom of the
human spirit." A Brazilian author best known for his classic "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," Friere
identified literacy as a requisite for achieving social justice. In 1962, he taught 300 sugarcane
workers to read and write in just 45 days, spurring a movement to promote simple and effective
methods of teaching that could easily be replicated for large groups.
For Capacitar, modeling this approach means helping people wake up to their own potential
to help themselves, and then taking what they've learned to others in the community. Because
the experience of grassroots trauma is so vast, Capacitar has opted to teach "body-based skills"
in group settings. Cane has found that the individual therapeutic model, most commonly used
in the West, is impractical or culturally
inappropriate in many parts of
the world. "Trauma is stored in the
emotional brain, the inner part of
the brain," she says. The best way to
access these recesses of pain is not
through psychoanalytical methods,
but through the body itself, which,
according to Cane, works at a much
deeper level.
"You have to recognize the tremendous
hunger the human body
has to be in its center," she says. The
lack of mental health professionals
in most countries where Capacitar
works makes this simpler model of
advocating self-care the most effective.
During Cane's recent work
in Sierra Leone, a country of 6.5
million, she encountered only one
psychiatrist. Similarly, Sri Lanka,
where Capacitar worked after the
tsunami, has very few psychologists
for a population of 19 million.
Helping Yourself
Capacitar's programs teach simple self-care practices
that can be understood and used by anyone, regardless
of education, ethnicity, age, gender or religion. Penny
Bellad-Ellis, a nurse educator in South Africa who has
worked with Capacitar since 2004, believes the practices
"create a feeling of solidarity and 'oneness' in the
group," particularly significant in a country scarred by
apartheid.
Practices are based on the Asian medical theories of
meridians or channels of energy in the body that are
connected with organ systems and associated emotions,
like anger, fear or grief. The work can be done anytime
and anywhere, and doesn't require special equipment
or supplies. Breathwork, tai chi exercises, visualization,
meditation and energy holds on the head, heart, shoulder
and crown are taught to release anxiety and traumatic
memories, while promoting relaxation.
For finger holds, participants grip each finger for two
to five minutes, breathing and letting go of emotions
that arise. Emotional Freedom Technique involves tapping
or pressing on acupressure points to open energy
flow. Participants are also taught to do foot and hand
massage, and to identify the specific acupressure points
that can help ease pain and stress.
The practices can be modified to
address the specific needs of different
groups. Bellad-Ellis says the
common experience of physical and
sexual abuse by many attending the
programs requires touch be used
sensitively, and participants are always
given the option of keeping
their hands just above the targeted
area. She adds that Capacitar's practices
are designed to create a place
of physical and psychological safety,
so participants don't often feel the
need to refrain from touch.
Aiveen Mullally, an educational
consultant and psychotherapist
in training in Dublin, Ireland,
has worked with Cane since 2003
when the organization first came
to Ireland. Mullally has successfully
incorporated the Capacitar techniques
into two workshops she facilitates,
one for women with breast
cancer and the other for caregivers
of spouses with Alzheimer's disease.
"No matter what group I've ever used
them with, they are always people's
favorite no matter how uncomfortable
they are initially with the idea
of touch," she says.
Making Access Easy
In keeping with the replicability
ethic of the organization, Capacitar
publishes manuals that offer detailed
photos and instruction in using the
practices to address trauma, cancer
and AIDS specifically, as well as how
to teach them to children. The organization
also provides free comprehensive
descriptions of their practices
that can be downloaded from
their website. Emergency Response
Kits explain the practices simply so
the techniques can easily be passed
among family and community members.
Energy healing resonates well in
traditional societies, where people
often see connections between the
techniques taught in the workshops
and their own cultures. "People will
tell me, 'my grandmother used to
do something like this,'" says Cane.
Teaching in Sri Lanka, participants
made the connection between their
own Ayurvedic history and the practices,
and in Africa they were likened
to the techniques of the "sangomas"
or traditional healers.
Though the practices themselves
are appreciated, the terminology
often has to be adjusted to fit various
cultures. "We don't use the word
massage because of its connections
to prostitution," says Cane of her
work in Central America. Instead,
programs are called healing touch or
bodywork. Similarly, in many places
"admitting trauma is like admitting
alcoholism," she says, so workshops
are instead called healing stress or
promoting wellness.
Cane, who at 68 visited 15 countries
last year and spends two-thirds
of her time on the road, often travels
to places avoided by other aid organizations,
giving help wherever it's
needed. Visiting Sierra Leone last
August, she found herself face to
face with a population and a problem she'd never before
encountered in her 20 years of work: amputees. Rebels—
many of them child soldiers—commonly had their
hands, arms, fingers and other body parts amputated as
punishment during the brutal 10-year civil war. "I told
the boys, 'If you can't do it with your stump, imagine
you are doing it with your energy limb that still exists,'"
Cane recalls. "It was amazing. They could feel what the
others were feeling. They felt whole again."
Similar stories come from all over the world. Mullally,
who worked with Capacitar in Sri Lanka six months after
the tsunami, describes a young woman who came
into their workshop in visible pain, but began to brighten
and become more involved as the program continued.
"Afterward she came up to me to say that she had been
bed-ridden for the last two months, lying on a plank of
wood with chronic back pain," Mullally explains. Participants
in Capacitar's projects routinely report striking
reductions in stress and trauma symptoms, including
headaches, back and shoulder pain, stomachache,
insomnia, depression and anxiety.
Dr. Geneviève van Waesberghe, a missionary sister
in Rwanda who has worked with Capacitar since 2006,
says that the mission of the organization goes beyond
the individual healing practices. In her words, it inspires
compassion and hope. "Capacitar is so simple, so available,"
she says.
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American Massage Therapy Association®
