Burnout care and healing in the face of violence
A program for activists and families of disappeared people in Mexico to prevent burnout and experience healing amidst grief
Burnout care and healing in the face of violence
A program for activists and families of disappeared people in Mexico to prevent burnout and experience healing amidst grief
The Preventing Burnout Program, launched by Casa Xitla in Mexico, supports activists and families of the disappeared who face immense trauma and risk in their fight for justice. This holistic program addresses the physical, emotional, and mental health of participants, helping them reconnect with their bodies and find new meaning amidst ongoing pain. Through practices like movement therapy and self-care, participants restore their well-being and discover more choices and possibilities in their lives.
What is the community’s story?
Activists and families directly affected by violence frequently find themselves on the front lines of advocating for justice.
The grief and horror of loss are compounded by the traumatic experiences of searching for (and at times finding) victims, while navigating difficult justice systems. In addition to the risk of severe physical harm or retaliation, families and activists also encounter overwhelming fear, hopelessness, and despair.
In Mexico, our partners Pablo Romo and Martha Elena Herrera Welsh at Casa Xitla have spent years serving families of the disappeared, and those who accompany them. Along the way, they have cared for family members of disappeared people, along with journalists, advocates, human rights workers, and community leaders who found themselves completely depleted.
What was our partnership about?
With a vision of restoring these individuals to a sustained, lasting state of well-being, our partners launched the Preventing Burnout Program.
“We must incorporate the person who is defending human rights; they are also important,” Pablo Romo says.
In spaces of social change and justice around the world, there can be a dangerous culture of martyrdom among those dedicated to important causes. At its worst, this culture can lead to the exploitation and burnout of the very people working toward change— the people we cannot afford to lose.
Pablo and his team are leading the charge in identifying and shifting this understanding toward a more inclusive, holistic approach to the justice fight. This narrative shift has spirited the path forward to designing a program precisely to care for those on the front lines in a holistic way: restoring mind, heart, and body.
In 2019, Brio partnered with Casa Xitla to explore and further integrate the needs of the participants into the program. The first of its kind, the Preventing Burnout Program offered online conversations and a weeklong in-person retreat for activist leaders to reflect, nourish, and heal themselves.
Throughout the program at Casa Xitla, participants reconnect with every aspect of their experience— including the effects on their physical, emotional, and mental health. Importantly, the team places emphasis on the integration of these experiences as part of a holistic healing process.
“We think about how our bodies speak to us… and which parts are asking for help,” says Martha Elena Herrera Welsh, who leads the movement therapy components of the program.
The abandonment of one’s bodily wellbeing— a sense of disembodiment— is one of the dark ironies about the work many participants are engaged in. In many cases, they are forced to reckon with lost human beings and hurt human bodies, constantly at risk of their own danger or harm.
To live in the body, to care for ourselves in all our needs and vulnerabilities, is difficult when the destruction of bodies is at the center of the struggle for human rights.
And yet, through learning to reconnect with their own physical being, making contact with their full experience even in the presence of pain, allows for a shift in perspective. Martha Elena works with each participant to care for their bodies through simple stretching, mindful awareness, self-care, exercise, nutrition, and more.
What is the impact so far?
In reconnecting with the fullness of their experience, and accompanying others who have endured similar horrific events, participants find meaning and purpose in the presence of their ongoing pain.
Some program participants choose to re-engage in their activism, continuing the fight for justice on behalf of victims and lost loved ones. They bring practices and perspectives from Casa Xitla to their own communities and collectives, where even more activists and families can benefit.
Others find themselves committing more readily to loved ones who are still around: grandchildren, children, siblings. They discover that kinship and joy are still available to them.
As with all initiatives that cultivate positive mental health and wellbeing, participants integrate new skills and perspectives— and they find they have more choices than they once imagined. More possibilities exist… and más vida: more life.
What have we learned?
Physical spaces can provide powerful opportunities for exhale: Casa Xitla is located in the south of Mexico City, hidden away in hills. A former nuns’ retreat, it offers respite not only from communities where families and activists are seeking justice, but also from the noise of the bustling city. Sometimes there is no substitute for a retreat like this: not an online session, an app, or even a local workshop. When possible, physical separation is essential for those on the frontlines, where they can learn to reconnect with their bodies and inhabit the world in a new way. It is also incredibly difficult to sustain— which is why this retreat model is both powerful and hard to scale to large numbers. Opportunities like this should occur more often in activism and social change, but resourcing them is an ongoing challenge.
Momentum is key: Participants come away from their time at Casa Xitla with new ideas and inspirations for improving their everyday wellbeing. But it’s challenging to keep momentum going if there is not a strong plan in place. Ways that participants were able to continue practicing and implementing new habits was actively sharing insights with their own families and communities.
Accompaniment as solidarity: The problems in the lives of participants were many; there were few immediate solutions. And yet, as they voiced in their interviews, participants found a different kind of solution in the presence of others. Accompaniment is not always about solving the immediate problem at hand; it is about moving in solidarity in the same direction. In many cases, the harm that has been committed cannot be undone, but individuals don’t have to find their way forward alone. The question is no longer “How do we get rid of this pain?” but rather “How can we be with each other’s pain, right here and now?”
