PROTOCOL OF THE STORY OF FINDING THE HEART

TO BE PRECEDED BY THE BASIC PROTOCOL

The therapist (or mental health professional) tells the following story:

"Once upon a time there were three little children who lived in a very peaceful place. They went to school, they did their homework, they drew pictures and they played. One day it started raining very hard, and so much rain fell, that some of those children lost their homes. What else did they lose?",

Asks the therapist, and the children usually answer: their toys, their parents, their friends, their pets. (The aim is for them to tell their own experiences, to identify with the characters in the story, and to stimulate interaction).

The therapist continues:

"So these children became very sad. They had nightmares, they found it difficult to sleep, what else happened to them?",

He/she asks. The children usually answer: they remembered the rain and what they saw, they had ugly dreams (CISM/ICISF: the aim is to take them from the cognitive to the emotional).

The therapist goes on:

"At the beginning it was normal for them to feel like that, after what they lived through (CISM/ICISF: the aim is to validate their emotions and feelings), but a lot of time went by and it seemed that these children had lost their hearts: they didn’t feel like laughing, studying or playing

(This was added because the children in question had suffered the event already three months before).

One day they met a child who looked calm (adjectives such as "happy", or "enthusiastic" were avoided given the extremely difficult situation these children find themselves in) and they asked him how he managed that. The child told them that the first thing he did was to talk with someone he trusted when he felt sad or angry or was having nightmares (CISM/ICISF: the aim is to help in the recuperative process), then he followed the colors of the rainbow that appeared after the rain, when the sun came out; and he found the buried treasure at the end of the rainbow.

The three children in our story decided to talk to the people they trusted about how they felt (CISM/ICISF: to help in the recuperative process), and then they went to look for the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

They walked for a long time (the therapist taps his/her own knees and the children follow, EMDR: bilateral stimulation), and when they got tired they lay down beside a big tree and fell asleep.

What do you think they saw when they woke up?"

The children give their ideas. One of them said: the rainbow. "Exactly", says the therapist and adds:

And they run through the colors of the rainbow (while she taps her knees, EMDR: bilateral stimulation), and adds: and at the end of it they found a treasure, what do yo think that treasure was?".

The children give some answers, and the therapist says:

HIS HEART. Feel your own heart (they are shown the Butterfly Hug or the Hug of Self Love, Aim: contra-lateral stimulation and self love).

Close your eyes while you give yourselves this hug, and feel how your heart beats, and with each beat it fills you with calm and security. Feel the love that you give yourselves.

Now open your eyes and take each other by the hand and feel how, all together, you make your hearts stronger .