Yesterday was a training to train telephone counselors for the Domestic Violence and Moral Harassment Hotline. The theme of yesterday’s learning was ” social pathology and composite support”.
The support that is available in the world is what we call in narrative therapy, “the problem creates the system,” which leads to the reality that the system needs the problem.
In short, support becomes “support for support’s sake,” a structure that requires problems to keep supporters from losing their jobs, whether it be domestic violence, abuse, or mental health care… The victims are the clients for the supporters, and they don’t want to lose them. In this context, it is said that domestic violence programs are useless because “domestic violence cannot be cured” and that the only way to support domestic violence is to isolate and protect victims. A huge amount of the government’s funds are spent to isolate and protect victims, not to end domestic violence.
Instead of being a part of this kind of stupid support, we are planning to open a telephone counseling service as the first step of support that will lead to full-scale support for the people suffering from various problems, not limited to domestic violence and moral harassment, in order to empower them to end their problems and self-actualize their lives. We hope to open this service in August.
All of the current trainees are the people who suffered from the problem. Some are so-called former perpetrators and some are former victims. In order to provide support from the point of view of the person, the counselor must be a recovered person or a person who understands the nature of the person. However, it will take a lot of time and effort for them to develop their own knowledge and skills to be able to make effective consultation calls.
The hotline, which is scheduled to open in August, will be dialed at 075-468-3762. The line will be open twice a month on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month for three hours from 6 pm to 9 pm. The consultation fee is free. The counseling is not limited to domestic violence and moral harassment, but covers a wide range of family problems such as abuse, self-harm, withdrawal, and eating disorders. It is open to anyone, regardless of gender, age, or whether they are a victim or perpetrator.
Originally posted on May 27, 2021
English text translated with DeepL (Japanese to English) and checked by Mina.