IJFS - Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies

In our introduction, we will present our long and rich experience in a
First Aid Centre, “Centro di Pronto Intervento” (CIP), in Brescia. This center
provides shelter for women, mothers (Italian and foreigners) children and victims
of violence, abuse and negligence. In the CIP, the educational task is a really
difficult and hard challenge. The operators themselves (all of whom are women)
often go through intense traumatic experiences, which must be recognized, faced
and elaborated (vicarious trauma). Our task is to help the educational group
enhance its ability to listen to so many painful stories, the silence full of anger and
desperation, and to conduct expressive psycho dramatic laboratories for the
women and children hosted. Psychodrama has proven to be a very useful
instrument not only in treating traumatized women and children but also for
training and supervising operators working in these structures.