Day 35: First Day of New Hope Training

Today was the first day of a 4-day training I need to complete in order to become a volunteer for the New Hope, a domestic violence (DV) services agency. We went from 10-4 today and the most intense part of the session was watching a video of a real domestic violence situation. The victim's daughter, concerned that her mother would killed by her stepfather, recorded the incident in case she needed to provide evidence of the abuse. The batterer did, in fact, end of killing her mother and the family allows the video to be used for DV training purposes only. There was no video, just audio. My heart was pounding through the brief (about 15 minute) DVD and I broke out into a sweat. I have always reacted very strongly to DV situations in movies or television shows, so I was panicked that I wasn't going to be able to handle it. The trainers encouraged us to step out of the room if it was too much or it triggered something. I made it through, but it was incredibly difficult. One of the trainers shared this piece of advice with us when dealing with hearing victims' stories. I thought it was really powerful and a good word, not only for volunteering, but during this challenging time of parenting a teenage boy who doesn't want to hear to much from his dull-witted parents these days.

Back for Day 2 in the morning. My worldview has already changed and I'm anxious to learn more.