about us.
our story.
We are a group of clinical psychologists specialised on trauma related disorders. We are united by the vision to bridge the gap in the provision of effective and evidence-based mental health care to trauma survivors in Brazil. We decided to devote our professional lives to the victims whose voices are silenced due to the consequences of trauma. When the NET Brasil project started in 2018, thanks to a grant from the University of Konstanz and the collaboration with Fiocruz, we were delighted to provide the first trainings in this evidence based approach Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) to family doctors and psychologists in Rio de Janeiro and see the first treatments starting. Currently we are running a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of Narrative Exposure Therapy versus treatment as usual in the setting of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro. Learn more about our preliminary results.
our philosophy.
The act of remembering a traumatic experience together with a counselor can be very powerful. It helps the trauma survivor healing the psychological wounds and live a healthy social life. The sharing and documenting of these experiences allows integration of these events in the collective memory uniting people by the fact.
remember.
Accumulating traumatic experiences impair neural processes to the extent that it is difficult to isolate an individual event from the conglomerate. As a result, they are felt as if happening ‘here and now’. This can render work and social life into major challenges. In Narrative Exposure Therapy these memories are transformed into contextualized entities and anchored in the past. With it, the memory can be retrieved when needed but will not determine your life anymore.
heal.
From birth to aging, our brain is plastic and healing is possible. Remembering traumatic experiences via Narrative Exposure Therapy allows the brain to establish intrusive memories within their autobiographic context. The intrusive character of events declines, allowing positive thoughts and hope to enter life again.
unite.
Several issues break the integration of trauma survivors into society: avoidance, shame, dissociation and more. In communities with high levels of ongoing violence, these issues meet mechanisms in the social realm that further contribute to exclusion. The sharing of trauma is often stigmatized. A fragmented collective memory gives rise to extreme opinions that may gain momentum and divide. Trauma narratives contain valuable information to societies that can promote communion.