Considering Spiritual Therapy for Violence Survivors

"A good looking lady works out to keep her body in shape, but a pretty lady kneels down in prayer to keep her heart in shape". (Source: Unknown)

Some of programmes of advocacy for violence survivors have been identified and it would be crucial to be conducted so that the problems faced by them could be overcome.

In the early stage, non-formal and informal educations in the forms of trainings and courses will be of the essence to be taken into account. In this regards, the first important point is that the violence victims have to recognise their rights in the hope that they will avoid any kind of the violence and that their violent experiences they have had in the past would not recur.

As to the preparation of database of the victims and the perpetrators of violence, it would be identified the frequency of violence occurred and a variety of information related to the victims and the perpetrators data such as region, time, age, relationships between the victims and the perpetrators, level of education and employment as well as the chronological order of the violence, etc.

Another essential programme would be therapy facilities for the victims that can be performed by experts in certain fields, such as a psychological therapy in which the victims will get counseling on how to cope with violence, for instance how to avoid the perpetrators of violence and how to get rid of trauma, as well as how to make their life more safely. 

Additionally, there is also another alternative therapy that can be done, such as spiritual therapy. This makes it possible if the victims have a need for spiritual approach in dealing with their problems.

One programme is called "Mabit" (stay overnight). This is a religious event, which arranged and facilitated by one of religious groups on weekend (Saturday and Sunday), Al Kauny Center in Jakarta. 

It usually is guided by some religious mentors with participants of women and men coming from its members or other members of society with the variety of activities. I think that this programme could be duplicated as one form of spriritual therapy.

The type of activities would consist of and not limited to:

• Starting with the Maghrib (sunset) prayer together at 06:00 PM and then be continued with the Quran tadarrus (read the Koran---the Holy book), led by a religious mentor called "Ustadz".
• Isha (evening) Prayer at 07:00 PM and followed by having dinner together.
• Attending "Pengajian" (religious lecture), which consists of several sessions with motivational and inspirational themes in Islamic perspectives or other interesting topics at 08:00 -- 10:00 PM.
• All the participants go to sleep after that.
• Carrying out Lail / Tahajjud prayer at 03:00 AM and then continued by doing Fajr prayer (early morning) at 04:30 AM.
• Performing "Zikir" (remembrance of God's activity) together until morning.
• Continuing with performing an optional Prayer called "Isyraq" after that at 06:00 AM.
• Doing morning exercises together and followed by having breakfast at 07:00 AM.
• Performing the Duha prayer individually at 07:30 AM.
• Then followed by last session of "Pengajian" (religious lecture) also in various themes at 08:00 -- 10:00 AM.

After pursuing this forum, the participants stated that they were getting a new enlightenment. It felt that physical, mental and spiritual well-being were becoming better than usual because some activities that have been accomplished within this programme were truly beneficial, for instance some good example of worshiping God and the fact that the activities followed by different people and backgrounds, not only has it one purpose that it is to learn and refresh the religious matters, but also to they got involved in "silaturrahim" activity (meeting others) and the feeling of togetherness with other people.

Seeing the model applied by Al-Kauny Centre above and perhaps other models applied in other places could be considered as the working model of spiritual intervention for the victims of violence according to "their needs", especially for Muslim, and this would be examined in daily practices.

As we probably aware that the victims of violence who had brought up their complaints of violence that they experienced to the non-governmental organisations or to the hospitals, the police offices, and to other social organisations and therapy centres have got different needs. 

For this reason, the case management models will follow the needs of violence survivors respectively. If their cases are suitable to get spiritual intervention, then the violence survivors may pursue it and the other necessary treatment.*