Tree of Life Zimbabwe has an extensive and expansive training programme which spans over several years.
Trauma Healing and Empowerment training is only offered to our community-based Partners. Candidates must be survivors of trauma or distress, who have experienced the Tree of Life healing process and as a result, genuinely wish to volunteer their time to helping heal others.
One of our main goals is to create groups of community-based organisations, able to conduct the healing workshops on their own. The workshops are therefore done in the community, with the community and by the community. By working closely with community-based partners, we are also able to closely guard the integrity of the Tree of Life process. Above all, communities can own the process themselves.
Potential trainee candidates are identified by the existing Big Tree community-based teams and are then assessed for suitability by the Small Tree Mentors.
The Healing and Empowerment Training workshop comprises 4 x four-day long training sessions, with the last 3 being a series of empowerment sessions facilitated by the Tree of Life founders (Guardians). After being trained, the trainee has to observe a series of healing workshops before they are upgraded to co-facilitate healing workshop circles - this too being a graduated process. Trainees are mentored by a Small Tree mentor, together with their senior Big Tree colleagues.
Every quarter each community-based partner participates in our continuous “Refresher Training” workshops, which are geared at improving existing skills, and also to introduce new skills such as report writing, case consultations, basic monitoring and evaluation and more.
After a period of 2 years of active facilitation, trainees who acquire an adequate level of skill graduate to become Community Facilitators.
