EMBRACING CHANGE

Greetings everyone,

The changes we have undergone at Life Line Pretoria in my first month as Chair, have made me reflect on my own perception of dealing with change.

Change is the only constant in my journey through life. Change has never been easy. I have learnt not to be afraid, to be willing to let my past go. I have found courage to stand strong. I have learnt to influence the changes I want to see. I have learnt that my greatest adventure is what lies ahead. I accept challenges. They make my life interesting.

Overcoming them gives my life meaning.

Sometimes in this journey of change, my spirit has been wounded. The energy I give to others heals my own wounds. I have learnt that I cannot serve others from an empty vessel. I give myself a gift of time - time to rejuvenate, replenish, refuel. My wounds turn into wisdom. My soul shines stronger after every storm.

October 2016

IN THIS ISSUE: ………………………..

Embracing

change 1

Quote for Life 1

From the Director 3

Training Dept. 5

Tip from Rozanne 6

Straight from

Malashi 7

2016 Golf Day 9

BBQ – Bingo,Biryani

and Quiz 11

Human Trafficking

12

………………………..

When something is missing in your life, it usually turns

out to be someone. Robert Brault

Transformation requires compassion & forgiveness. I have learnt to give myself the same kindness I would give others. I have learnt to love myself, to forgive myself. I have learnt that if I have the right attitude with myself, I will have the right attitude with others. When I choose to forgive others, I take away their power over me.

Coming back to the changes at Life Line ...

Teresa da Silva has decided that it is time for her to move on. I thank her for all her efforts & recognise her significant contributions, energy & enthusiasm which she brought to the role as Director of Life Line Pretoria. I wish her well in her plans to study further. May all her future

endeavours be successful.

In these times of change, Sonya Rayne has been appointed as Director of Life Line Pretoria, with effect from Tuesday 11th October 2016. Due to her prior committments, she will only direct day to day operations from 8am to 1pm until 30th November. Thereafter she will assume her full role. Sonya has a good relationship with the Board. She has successfully interacted at various levels during her different roles at Life Line Pretoria, from her involvement in the community centres to her participation at National. I wish Sonya much success in her

new role as she ensures a smooth transition & maintains continuity.

I also welcome back Felicity Mullen (Flick), who has been reinstated as a counsellor at the Queenswood Community Centre. In keeping with her personality, Flick has invited everyone to her 80th birthday party, on 3oth October - a picnic that promises to be filled with lots of fun. I

wish Flick an awesome & blessed birthday.

Don't forget to support our Probationers in their annual fundraiser on 15th October, a BBQ - Bingo, Breyani & Quizz night. Bring your friends & family to enjoy good food & have lots of fun.

To the Board, our staff & all the volunteers, a big thank you for all you do, to help create an enviroment in which our clients feel safe to be heard & empowered to make a difference in

their own lives. We are their rainbow of hope.

Moving forward, growing stronger, Sheila.

FROM THE OUTGOING DIRECTOR ………….

I can hardly believe that we are in the final stretch of the year and already have our planning

schedule in place for 2017.

My own journey at LifeLine has come to an end. I have decided to pursue new avenues. I spent two

wonderful weeks in the UK, using the time for much needed existential reflection. LifeLine has been

one of the biggest parts of my life for the past three years. It was here that I finally came home to

myself, where I learnt what it was to be unconditionally accepted and loved. True grit and character

is revealed at LifeLine, by our clients, volunteers and staff. It is here that we learn what we care

capable of… realizing we can do so much more than we ever thought possible.

I want to thank my mentors and teachers at LifeLine.

A special thank you to my soul sister Rozanne for always having my back. To my Jorrie for her

invaluable business advice and rational thinking. To Alex, for always grounding me and helping me

stop sweating the small stuff.

I want to thank every counsellor for your commitment and dedication, not only to the organization,

but to me as your Director.

I leave LifeLine knowing that it now runs like a well-oiled machine. To the amazing LifeLine staff…..

keep your passion alive.

Here is to some great memories……

Training Department Hallo LifeLine Family

Introduction,

Wow, indeed time flies when you are having fun. But by fun I mean the work that we do is so great and fulfilling that time passes by so quickly, and yet there is still more to be done. Why am I saying this? I took time to look back at the year and the plans that we had to implement throughout the year, and my heart is full of gratitude to my God, as I see that everything went according to the plan. Challenges were there but we know that the purpose of that is to make sure that we do not get too comfortable and forget the value of the services that we need to offer to our community. Lay Counselling Skills Course.

In my previous newsletter, I mentioned that we have already started with our Lay Counselling Skills Course. During the second half of the year, we presented the weekday morning and Saturday Lay Counselling Skills Courses. We had to cancel the evening course because of having too few course participants. Both courses were successful. As I am writing this article we have already completed our counsellor selection interviews as well, which ran over a period of four consecutive days.

The Counselling Skills Course was completed in mid-September 2016 and during the last week of September we held our Selection interviews. We had a total of twenty three candidates for the selection interviews, as most of the candidates have shown great interest and passion in helping others. Most of the candidates performed well during their selection interviews, out of the twenty three, twenty were successful and it was recommended that the other three redo the Lay Counselling Skills Course.

I want to congratulate and welcome all our new probationers, I trust that you will grow in knowledge and skills during your probation. Upcoming Personal Growth Course

We will be presenting another Personal Growth Course in October 2016. We are presenting a Saturday course only. We had our course registration at the end of September 2016 and thus far we have thirteen course participants for the above mentioned course. This number is more than last year's October Personal Growth Course.

I am so glad that a lot of volunteers have already given in their names to facilitate during this course, so thank you for availing yourselves; you have made my work much easier.

Training Diary

October 2016 - Saturday Personal Growth Course Registrations

22 October – 12 November 2016

Continuous Development Training (Wednesday mornings)

15 October 2016 – Ethics / Sexual Harassment / Care for the Caregiver

In Conclusion

I want to thank all the volunteers who helped with facilitation on both courses. Thank you for the wonderful work you have done, I really appreciate it.

Thank you also to the volunteers who formed part of the selection interviews panel. It was really a busy four days. Thank you for making the time to come and make all things a success. Till next time, Agnes Semono

Counselling tip #17 from Rozanne:

Spoken words mean nothing if there is no one truly listening.

Straight from Malashi

Hi there LifeLine family, Is it me or is it the weather that is confused? I still remember saying goodbye to winter not so long ago, as we welcomed the “supposedly” Spring Season. I thought Spring was about sunshine and light attire, but I still find myself wearing warm jackets from time to time. Maybe this is the time to be doing away with the traditional sequence of seasons. I mean since we occasionally experience the other season(s) in the current one.

By way of Michael P. Brechtel, the Traumatic Incident Reduction Trainer and Facilitator; the difference between traditional mental health and trauma specific treatment is like bad and good firefighting. He says that in Western Mental Health, when an alarm goes off (a disturbing life event or symptom), the truck drives by the building. If they don’t see smoke, they keep driving. He went on to say that the western model is about illness, dysfunction, doing or not doing. As long as someone can do what they’re supposed to do, and avoid what they’re not supposed to do, they’re not ill. They may not be well, but we don’t care about that, as long as they can perform. If they can perform OK, they get no help until they stop performing. Then it’s too late.

With Trauma Specific Care when an alarm goes off, the crew assumes there’s a reason, probably a fire. They go into the building and search until they either find it, or they make sure its a false alarm. They know if you ignore a fire, it won’t go away. They also know a small fire is easy to put out. They believe people are more than just what they do. People are worthy, just because they are.

This is also true of traditional, indigenous healing and spiritual practices - people are valued. They aren’t just left to suffer. If there’s an event that has left a traumatic memory, it is addressed and resolved, no matter how small it may appear at the start. In Western Mental Health, once fire can be seen from the street, counsellors go into the building (the client's life) and find it full of smoke (disabling symptoms and life problems). They immediately start fighting the smoke. They focus on the symptoms rather than the cause. They are stunned that no matter how much smoke they fan away, there is always more smoke unless and until the whole thing burns to the ground. In Trauma Specific Care, facilitators go into the burning building expecting smoke, but looking for the fire. They may have to fan some smoke away to get to the fire, but they’re not getting bogged down fighting the smoke, they came to put out the fire. Once the fire is out, the smoke starts to clear by itself.

Until the fire is out, clearing the smoke is pointless. The unresolved traumatic memory is the source of the symptoms, that is what must be resolved, and then the symptoms stop. Of course, smoke is dangerous, sometimes deadly. If the house has been allowed to fill with smoke, people need help with their most intrusive symptoms and most urgent life problems, or they can't cooperate in putting out the fire. But if the helper gets bogged down fighting the smoke, they've done nothing to help the client. You might just as well just drive the truck back to the station; the house is going to be a total loss anyway.

We met with the Department of Health’s District Manager and his Task Team in Kwagga, Mpumalanga, towards the end of September. We asked for counselling space at their clinics, which we could use to provide counselling to the community as there is a need in that area. We also used the opportunity to introduced LifeLine services, and they showed great interest and willingness to partner with us. We had a share group meeting in Soshanguve on 29 September 2016. We have divided the Soshanguve Team into three groups. The next group is going to meet on Thursday 6 October and the other one will meet on 20 October. I did a few group and individuals’ trauma debriefing sessions i.e. three sessions at Kyalami in Midrand, two sessions in eMalahleni/Witbank and six sessions at our main office plus one telephone call, which took about 1hr, 45 min. We have attended stakeholders meetings in Mamelodi, where we are establishing and affirming partnerships with other service providers in the area. We are planning to re-establish the forum, which was once active.

What is important though is that we still remain relevant to the people; somebody out there is able to function because of having spoken to you. As Viktor Frankl puts it, “when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”. I believe we are helping and empowering people to do just that. Always align your plans with God’s will, and remember your will is not always God’s will. Peace be unto you.

LIFELINE PRETORIA'S 2016 GOLF DAY

LifeLine Pretoria hosted its annual fundraising charity Golf Day on 6 September 2016

at the Wingate Country Club.

We received very positive feedback from some of the players. One even said, " best

LifeLine golf day yet."

There was a good spirit on the day, in more ways than one!

We had fun at the registration table welcoming the players due to their attitude of "a

bad day at golf beats a good day at the office." The mood was buoyant.

Those manning the drinks' hole had their time cut out persuading the players to part

with their money as a 'donation' towards some evil looking stuff in a bottle that made

them feel good.

We had a wheelbarrow full of 'spirit' for the raffle and players were very generous in

buying raffle tickets in the hope of winning this very sought after prize. We also had

some well presented ladies helping to sell tickets after the game.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed towards this day as well as those who

sponsored. It is thanks to our sponsors that we made R145 000.00 despite the fact

that we could only manage to find 18 four balls. The challenge has been issued....

Please can we work towards filling the field next year? Just imagine how much we

could boost the coffers with 30 four balls!

Here is to next year!

Take care

Sylvia

HUMAN TRAFFICKING