Atlas›Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage›Guide 072
Guide XV-072

Fambul Tok bonfire forgiveness ceremonies

John Caulker, Libby Hoffman2007Sierra Leone
A 34 · L 47 · M 1919 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Fambul Tok community-reconciliation process as its founders and partner organisations published it between 2008 and 2012 (Forum of Conscience and Catalyst for Peace, Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Caulker 2012 in Conciliation Resources' Accord 23) and as described in Caulker and Webber's case study for the Mershon Center series Recovering From Violence: Reconciliation in Practice (undated); the 2016 randomised evaluation (Cilliers, Dube and Siddiqi, Science 352(6287)) is used for the evidence line and for the therapist's safety planning.

What it is. Fambul Tok (Krio for "family talk") is a community-owned, village-level reconciliation programme created in Sierra Leone after the 1991–2002 civil war. It is not a psychotherapy and it is not a court. Its founder, the Sierra Leonean human-rights activist John Caulker, had argued for grassroots "mini-commissions" alongside the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission; when that proposal was not taken up he developed Fambul Tok with Libby Hoffman, head of the US foundation Catalyst for Peace. The programme was launched in December 2007 after regional and district consultations, and its first district programme began in Kailahun in February 2008; by 2012 it was working in five districts [source: Caulker 2012; Fambul Tok: Our First Year]. Its current operating status and reach after the mid-2010s are [uncertain: not verified]. Its public documentation includes a 2011 book (Umbrage Editions, with photographs by Sara Terry and essays by Libby Hoffman and Sara Terry) and a feature documentary directed by Sara Terry with Hoffman as producer; the film's release year is [uncertain: not verified] [source: fambultok.com book page].

Core idea of change (as the founders state it). Communities heal by using their own, locally familiar practices: a night-time bonfire at which people who suffered and people who caused harm speak openly about the war, offenders acknowledge what they did and apologise, and forgiveness is asked for and offered; a cleansing ceremony next day that, in the participants' understanding, reconnects the community with its ancestors and through them with God; and shared follow-up work (Peace Trees for dispute mediation, community farms, Peace Mothers' groups, football matches) that rebuilds everyday relationships. Reintegration, not punishment or exile, is the aim [source: Caulker 2012; Caulker and Webber]. The ancestral and spiritual understanding of cleansing is the participants' and the programme's, reported here as theirs, neither affirmed nor dismissed.

Evidence line. In a randomised evaluation across 200 villages (2,383 people), the programme increased forgiveness of perpetrators and social capital but also increased depression, anxiety and PTSD, with effects persisting to about 31 months; the authors call for redesign to reduce psychological costs while keeping the social gains [source: Cilliers, Dube and Siddiqi 2016, via the J-PAL evaluation summary and the APHRC repository abstract].

What the psychotherapist does. A therapist is most likely to meet Fambul Tok through (a) a Sierra Leonean client, at home or in the diaspora, who took part, refused, missed it, or is weighing a community or family reconciliation; (b) a former combatant or a survivor carrying the war's aftermath; or (c) consultation to a peacebuilding programme. The therapist's work is assessment of readiness and safety, preparation, accompaniment and debriefing, trauma-informed treatment before and after, coordination (with consent) with the trained community facilitators, and work with the meaning of the bonfire, apology, forgiveness and cleansing in the client's life. The therapist does not convene or lead a bonfire or a cleansing; those belong to the community, its leaders and the programme's trained Reconciliation Committees [synthesis]. Domain cross-references: Healing of Memories (073), sulha and mato oput (071), restorative justice conferencing and family group conferencing (066).

2. Framework

Fambul Tok describes its method as "emergent design": each district's programme is shaped by local consultation rather than copied from a template, so the phases below are the published outline, not a fixed protocol [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year].

Programme phases (as published).

  1. Consultation. Regional pre-consultations (December 2007) and then district consultations asked whether communities wished to reconcile and how; stakeholders broadly favoured traditional methods. Goal: community consent and ownership. Caulker states consultations run at least three months before any bonfire [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Caulker 2012].
  2. Staff and volunteer selection. District coordinators and assistants are recruited; each chiefdom names one male and one female contact person to form a District Executive. Communities judged ready are chosen, in the case-study account by open ballot [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Caulker and Webber; Catalyst for Peace "How it works" chart].
  3. Committees. Stakeholders, including religious and community leaders, select a Reconciliation Committee (coordination, mediation, follow-up; intended to include women and youth, and in early accounts a youth leader, a "mommy queen", the section chief, an imam and a priest) and an Outreach Committee (in the case study, with equal numbers of people perceived as victims and as offenders; it publicises the programme and gathers community contributions); early reports also describe youth outreach teams who helped allay fears of prosecution by the Special Court [source: Caulker and Webber; Fambul Tok: Our First Year].
  4. Sensitisation and training. District Executive and committee members are trained in Fambul Tok values, basic trauma healing, listening, mediation and restorative justice; a one-week training appears on the programme's chart; the content of the trauma-healing training is not published in detail [uncertain] [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Caulker 2012; Catalyst for Peace chart].
  5. Preparation (about three to four months). Village visits, scheduling and community contributions; ceremonies are held at section level (clusters of villages) so people can attend locally. A district team visits before and after the bonfire to check how victims and offenders are faring [source: Caulker and Webber; Caulker 2012].
  6. Ceremonies. A bonfire (in the evaluation, part of a two-day event), a cleansing ceremony the following day, and a communal feast [source: Caulker and Webber; J-PAL summary].
  7. Follow-up. Peace Trees, Football for Reconciliation, community farms, Peace Mothers' groups, radio listening clubs, student peace clubs, and ongoing visits until local structures can sustain themselves; then repetition in new districts [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Catalyst for Peace chart].

Criteria for moving between phases (as published). Community willingness established in consultation; committees formed and trained; community contributions gathered; fears (e.g. of prosecution) addressed, sometimes delaying a bonfire; refusals respected, with staff returning only when invited [source: Caulker and Webber]. Individual-level readiness criteria are not published [uncertain].

The therapist's parallel frame [synthesis]. Session counts for therapy alongside Fambul Tok are not given in any source; plan by need, not by a fixed number.

  • Before: assessment, cultural formulation, readiness and safety, informed choice about whether and how to take part, stabilisation, and preparation for a chosen role (speaker, listener, family representative, non-participant). Move on when the client can state what they want from taking part, what they will and will not say, who supports them, and how they will stop.
  • Around the event: support plan, contact plan, accompaniment by a trusted person (not usually the therapist).
  • After: debrief and structured monitoring for PTSD, depression and anxiety (the outcomes the evaluation found worsened), trauma-focused treatment where indicated, grief work, and support for continued participation in follow-up activities. Move to ending only when symptoms are monitored as stable or improving and the client's social re-engagement is under way.

3. Guiding principles

Principles published by Fambul Tok [source: Fambul Tok: Our First Year; Caulker and Webber; Caulker 2012], each with its practical meaning for the therapist [synthesis]:

  • Community ownership and "walking with" communities to find their own answers. The client and their community decide whether and how to reconcile; the therapist does not recommend the bonfire or design its content.
  • Respect for and revival of cultural practices. Ask about and work within the client's understanding of bonfire, apology, cleansing and ancestors; do not translate them into clinical jargon without the client's agreement.
  • Honesty, the right to truth, and restoration of dignity. Support the client's wish to know and to be heard, while protecting their right to say less, or nothing.
  • Total participation, including women and young people. Ask specifically how gender, age and status shaped the client's voice; women's experiences of the programme varied and were shaped by gendered power relations [source: Martin 2021].
  • Reintegration, not punishment or exile. Hold space for both people who suffered and people who caused harm, without requiring the person harmed to accept reintegration.
  • Non-political, non-partisan. Keep the therapy free of party politics and of anyone seeking to use the client's story.
  • Emergent design. Expect local variation; ask what happened in the client's village rather than assuming a standard ceremony.

Principles from restorative-justice guidance that the therapist applies [source: Scottish Government 2017 guidance, Part B]:

  • Voluntariness. Participation must be freely chosen, without pressure, coercion or inducement, including into agreements: screen for family, chief or community pressure.
  • Informed consent. The person needs clear information on purpose, benefits, risks, limits and alternatives, and time to decide: include the evaluation's finding of increased distress.
  • Right to withdraw and to choose indirect routes. Rehearse stopping; support people who withdraw with guilt or disappointment.
  • Assessment of risk, including power imbalance. Assess mental health, resilience, history, substance use and power differences before and during; restorative meetings will very rarely be appropriate for domestic abuse or sexual offences; in Fambul Tok's own account some matters, including certain rape cases, could not be resolved through Peace Trees [source: Scottish Government 2017; Caulker and Webber].
  • Acknowledgement as a precondition. Where the person who caused harm shows no acknowledgement, a meeting should not go ahead: do not prepare a survivor to face an unrepentant person.

Therapist-stance principles [synthesis]:

  • Do no psychological harm. Because the evaluation found more depression, anxiety and PTSD among participating villages, treat testimony as an exposure-like event requiring preparation and follow-up, not as automatically cathartic.
  • Forgiveness is a choice, not an outcome measure. Never use forgiveness or apology as a sign of therapeutic success.
  • Stay in role. The therapist accompanies the client's process; trained committee members and leaders run the community process. Avoid multiple relationships that could impair objectivity or exploit the client (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05).
  • Confidentiality of war stories. Disclosures in therapy (including of acts that could interest a court) need clear explanation of the limits of confidentiality in your jurisdiction before detail is given.
  • Never name or identify. In notes, supervision and any consultation, do not record names of other victims, witnesses or alleged perpetrators beyond what is clinically necessary.

4. Intervention inventory

The published sources describe community-level procedures (consultation, committees, bonfire, cleansing, follow-up) but no clinical procedures for therapists. The inventory below therefore pairs each published component with the therapist-side work around it; all therapist steps are [synthesis] unless a source is named, and the ceremony itself is given only in public outline. Interventions 4.1–4.19 follow the client's path from first mention to long-term follow-up.

4.1 Orienting history: the client's war and the client's village

  • Purpose / when: First sessions with any client from Sierra Leone affected by the war, or who mentions Fambul Tok, a bonfire, a cleansing or a Peace Tree. Establishes what the client lived through and what, if anything, happened in their community, without pressing for traumatic detail [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Explain that you will ask broad questions first and that the client chooses how much to say. (2) Map displacement, losses, current safety, and whether the client is seen locally as someone harmed, someone who caused harm, both, or neither. (3) Ask whether their section held Fambul Tok ceremonies, whether they attended, spoke, listened, stayed away, or were abroad. (4) Ask about follow-up structures they still use (Peace Tree, farm, Peace Mothers). (5) Note, without detail, any sexual violence, child recruitment or ongoing threat for later safety assessment.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't need to tell me what happened in the war today. Can you tell me where you were living, and whether your village did anything together afterwards to talk about it?"
  • Watch for: Rising arousal when the war is named (slow down, ground); reluctance linked to fear of prosecution or of being identified; shame about being cast as an offender. Working when the client can place their experience on a simple timeline and names who they trust.

4.2 Cultural formulation, including spirituality and ancestors

  • Purpose / when: Before any decision about participation, and whenever cleansing, ancestors, curses or blessings come up. Locates the problem in the client's own explanatory model.
  • Steps: (1) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview core questions (cultural definition of the problem, causes, support and stressors, cultural identity, help-seeking), adding its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions; module content is paraphrased here, not reproduced, and its exact items are [uncertain: not verified]. (2) Ask what the bonfire and cleansing mean, in the client's words: in Fambul Tok accounts, cleansing seeks to reconnect the community with ancestors and through them with God, and may involve libations, prayers at church or mosque, or animal sacrifice depending on the community [source: Caulker and Webber]. (3) Ask how family, faith leaders and elders see the client's role. (4) Where distress centres on a rite, faith or moral standing, consider the DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem" (Z65.8; ICD-10-CM lists religious or spiritual problem under Z65.8 "Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances"); DSM-5-TR wording [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your community, what is the cleansing for? What would it mean for you if it was done, or if it was never done?"
  • Watch for: The therapist translating ancestral understanding into symptoms; a client testing whether you will dismiss their beliefs. Working when the client explains their model freely and corrects you.

4.3 Readiness and voluntariness assessment

  • Purpose / when: When a client is invited to, or is considering, a bonfire, a Peace Tree mediation, a family apology or a similar community process.
  • Steps: (1) Ask who asked them to take part and what happens if they say no. (2) Separate the client's own wish from family, chief, faith or committee expectations; restorative guidance requires freely chosen participation without coercion or inducement [source: Scottish Government 2017]. (3) Explore motives and expectations (to be heard, to learn the truth, to be forgiven, to stop gossip, to receive something). (4) Ask what they would need in place to feel safe. (5) Record the client's decision and reasons; revisit it at every session before the event.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you decided not to go, who would be disappointed, and what would actually happen to you?"
  • Watch for: Participation driven by fear of exclusion, by a chief's wish, or by expectation of material help (the evaluation notes no one was paid [source: J-PAL summary]); ambivalence voiced only after the event is fixed. Working when the client can state a reason that is their own.

4.4 Safety and contraindication screen

  • Purpose / when: Before any direct contact with a person who caused harm, and before public testimony.
  • Steps: (1) Screen for sexual violence, intimate-partner or family violence, and coercive control: restorative meetings will very rarely be appropriate for domestic abuse or sexual offences [source: Scottish Government 2017], and Fambul Tok's case study reports that certain rape cases could not be resolved through Peace Trees [source: Caulker and Webber]. (2) Assess power imbalance (status, gender, age, dependency on the other party). (3) Check whether the other person acknowledges harm; without acknowledgement a meeting should not proceed [source: Scottish Government 2017]. (4) Assess current suicide risk, PTSD, depression, psychosis and substance use using standard risk practice. (5) Check retaliation risk and legal exposure. (6) Agree with the client whether to raise concerns with the Reconciliation Committee.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some kinds of harm are not safe to talk through face to face, especially sexual harm or harm from someone you still depend on. Can we look at whether that applies to you?"
  • Watch for: Disclosure of sexual violence for the first time; signs the other party could use the occasion to intimidate. If any contraindication is present, steer toward individual treatment and non-contact options [synthesis].

4.5 Informed-choice conversation about benefits and costs

  • Purpose / when: Once readiness and safety are assessed, before a decision.
  • Steps: (1) Describe the public outline of the process. (2) Share the evaluation plainly: villages that took part showed more forgiveness, trust in ex-combatants and social networks, and also more depression, anxiety and PTSD, lasting about three years [source: J-PAL summary]. (3) Explain that the authors read this as re-traumatisation from revisiting the past [source: J-PAL summary]. (4) Lay out options: attend and speak, attend and listen, have a family member speak, contribute to follow-up activities only, decline. (5) Give time to decide.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Studies found these ceremonies brought villages closer, and that many people felt worse afterwards for a long time. Both can be true. Let's plan so you get the first without carrying the second alone."
  • Watch for: The client hearing the evidence as a verdict on their culture; the therapist's own view steering the choice. Working when the client can weigh both sides in their own words.

4.6 Choosing a role: speaker, listener, representative or non-participant

  • Purpose / when: After the decision to attend. Testimony at bonfires is spontaneous; family members may apologise, or accept an apology, for absent people [source: Caulker and Webber].
  • Steps: (1) Clarify which role the client wants. (2) If speaking, help the client decide in advance what they will and will not say, and in how much detail. (3) If a relative will speak for them, discuss what they want said and how they will learn what happened. (4) If listening only, prepare for hearing others' accounts, including of events that touched them. (5) Prepare a short phrase for leaving or passing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You can be there without speaking. If you do speak, you choose where your story starts and where it stops."
  • Watch for: Pressure in the moment to say more than planned; vicarious distress from listening. Working when the client holds a clear boundary in rehearsal.

4.7 Stabilisation and coping preparation before the event

  • Purpose / when: For any participant with trauma symptoms, before the bonfire. Because testimony can reopen grief or conflict [source: Caulker and Webber] and the evaluation found worse mental-health outcomes, treat the event as an emotional exposure needing preparation [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Teach two or three grounding skills the client can use unobtrusively in a crowd and at night. (2) Build a personal warning-signs list. (3) Identify a trusted companion who will sit with them and can take them away. (4) Plan sleep, food and rest around the event. (5) Agree a check-in time after the event.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If the fire and the voices start to pull you back into that time, what will you feel in your body first? Let's practise what you will do right then."
  • Watch for: Dissociation or intrusive memories in session as the event nears; poor sleep. If symptoms are escalating, discuss postponing or choosing a quieter role.

4.8 Preparing a person harmed to hear an apology, or not

  • Purpose / when: When the client expects a perpetrator to speak, or wishes to ask for truth (e.g. what happened to a missing relative).
  • Steps: (1) Clarify what the client hopes to hear. (2) Prepare for the likelihood that the account will be partial, minimising or different from what they believe. (3) Explore what forgiveness means in their faith and family. (4) Separate accepting an apology, forgiving, reconciling and continuing to live alongside. (5) Prepare responses for each outcome, including saying nothing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Hearing 'I'm sorry' and choosing to forgive are two different things. You are allowed to hear it and decide later, or never."
  • Watch for: Hopes pinned on one sentence; guilt at not feeling forgiving. Working when the client can tolerate an imagined disappointing account.

4.9 Preparing a person responsible for harm to acknowledge and apologise

  • Purpose / when: With a former combatant or other responsible person. Public apology is central to the bonfire [source: Caulker 2012; Caulker and Webber]; acknowledgement is a precondition in restorative guidance [source: Scottish Government 2017].
  • Steps: (1) Explore what the client did, in the depth they can bear, and their own trauma, coercion or recruitment history (many were young; never name any minor). (2) Work on shame and moral injury so the apology is not swallowed by self-justification or collapse [synthesis]. (3) Help the client distinguish acknowledgement from excuse. (4) Explain the limits of therapy confidentiality and any legal exposure before detail is given; ex-combatants' fear of Special Court prosecution delayed some bonfires [source: Caulker and Webber]. (5) Prepare for anger, refusal or silence from people harmed.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What would you want the family to know is true about what you did, without explaining it away?"
  • Watch for: Rehearsed apology without acknowledgement; suicidal ideation as shame surfaces; risk of being targeted. Working when the client can name the harm plainly and tolerate the listener's response being outside their control.

4.10 Coordination with the Reconciliation Committee and district team

  • Purpose / when: When the client wants the community process to know about safety needs or support. Committee members are trained in basic trauma healing, listening and mediation, stay in the community, and the district team visits before and after the bonfire [source: Caulker 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Obtain explicit, specific written consent for what may be shared and with whom. (2) Share only what is needed (e.g. "needs a companion and a way to leave"), never the trauma narrative. (3) Agree who will check on the client after the event. (4) Clarify roles: the committee runs the community process; you provide treatment. (5) Respect the programme's own boundaries (e.g. events restricted to community members [source: Caulker and Webber]).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if someone on the committee knew you might need to step away? What exactly would you be comfortable with them knowing?"
  • Watch for: Local committees including relatives of people involved (chiefs sometimes sought to place relatives on committees [source: Caulker and Webber]); confidentiality leakage in a small community. Working when the client feels safer, not more exposed.

4.11 Accompaniment and support-person planning

  • Purpose / when: For the event day and night. Restorative guidance treats the presence or absence of supporters as a risk factor to balance and asks that support be agreed in advance [source: Scottish Government 2017].
  • Steps: (1) Help the client choose a companion who is not involved in the harm. (2) Agree signals for "stay close", "take me out" and "I'm fine". (3) Plan how they will get home safely. (4) For diaspora clients following remotely, plan who will phone them afterwards. (5) The therapist does not normally attend; if attendance is ever considered, weigh dual-role and boundary risks in supervision [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Who would you trust to sit beside you all night, and to walk you home if you need to go?"
  • Watch for: A chosen companion who has their own stake in the testimony. Working when the plan is specific and the companion has agreed.

4.12 Post-ceremony debrief

  • Purpose / when: Soon after the bonfire and cleansing. Avoid forcing a detailed retelling [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask open questions about what it was like, letting the client choose the level of detail. (2) Ask what surprised them, what helped, what hurt. (3) Normalise mixed reactions: relief and new distress can co-exist (consistent with the evaluation's mixed findings [source: J-PAL summary]). (4) Check sleep, safety, and any new conflict. (5) Plan the next steps (monitoring, treatment, follow-up activities).
  • Example language (illustrative): "You may feel lighter about the village and heavier inside at the same time. Which is louder today?"
  • Watch for: Reopened grief or conflict (the committee sometimes had to intervene at bonfires [source: Caulker and Webber]); retaliation; hidden disappointment. Working when the client can describe the event and still feel present.

4.13 Structured monitoring for PTSD, depression and anxiety

  • Purpose / when: In the months after participation, because the evaluation found these rose and persisted to about 31 months [source: Cilliers et al. 2016 abstract via APHRC; J-PAL summary].
  • Steps: (1) Take a baseline before the event if possible. (2) Re-assess at regular intervals with validated measures appropriate to the language and culture (licensed instruments are named in your service, not reproduced here). (3) Include suicide risk assessment and lethal-means counselling where indicated. (4) Ask about idioms of distress in Krio or local languages. (5) Treat a rise as a signal to offer treatment, not as failure.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Every few weeks I'll ask the same short questions, so we can see together whether the bonfire is settling in you or still stirring things up."
  • Watch for: Late-onset symptoms; somatic presentations. Crisis resources for diaspora clients: 988 (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).

4.14 Trauma-focused treatment after participation

  • Purpose / when: When PTSD, depression or prolonged grief is present or rising after the event [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Offer an evidence-based trauma treatment you are trained in, adapted culturally. (2) Integrate what was said at the bonfire as material, with the client's permission. (3) Address new memories or information that surfaced. (4) Coordinate with medical care for any medication questions; never advise starting, stopping or changing medicine. (5) Refer to specialist trauma services if beyond competence.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What came back to you at the fire is something we can work with here, slowly and safely."
  • Watch for: Avoidance of sessions after a hard event; over-reliance on the community process as the only healing route. Working when intrusions and avoidance decrease on monitoring.

4.15 Working with the meaning of cleansing and ancestors

  • Purpose / when: When the client attributes change (or its absence) to the cleansing, ancestors or God. Communities later credited better harvests to the ceremonies; the case-study authors also note increased collective farming may have contributed [source: Caulker and Webber].
  • Steps: (1) Invite the client's account of what the cleansing did. (2) Neither confirm nor contest spiritual efficacy; explore its meaning and consequences. (3) Where cleansing was missed, refused or disputed (e.g. male-only ritual traditions excluding women [source: Caulker and Webber]), explore grief, shame or exclusion. (4) With consent, collaborate with the client's imam, priest or traditional leader.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said the land felt clean after the ceremony. What changed for you when you walked on it?"
  • Watch for: Spiritual fear (curse, unappeased ancestors) presenting as anxiety; the therapist's discomfort with sacrifice or libation. Working when the client's own framework is a resource rather than a source of dread.

4.16 Grief work for the dead and the missing

  • Purpose / when: Many testimonies touch on killing and disappearance; truth-telling may bring new information or none [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Assess for prolonged grief disorder as DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 describe it (criteria [uncertain: not verified]). (2) Explore disrupted or missing burial and mourning rites. (3) Support the client's own mourning practices. (4) Consider client-authored remembrance where rites cannot happen (see 4.18).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Was there ever a proper time to mourn him? What would that have needed?"
  • Watch for: Suicidal ideation in bereavement; use safe-messaging practice and crisis resources (988 US; Samaritans 116 123 UK and Ireland).

4.17 Supporting follow-up participation and social reconnection

  • Purpose / when: After the ceremony, the programme sustains relationships through Peace Trees (dialogue and mediation facilitated by trained committee members), community farms where former combatants and victims work together, Peace Mothers' groups offering emotional support and development initiatives, and football matches [source: Caulker and Webber]. The evaluation found stronger networks and more participation in community groups [source: J-PAL summary].
  • Steps: (1) Use behavioural-activation framing: link valued activities to mood (cross-refer Domain II 040). (2) Help the client choose one follow-up activity that fits. (3) Plan for contact with people from the bonfire. (4) Review how participation affects mood and safety.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which of these feels like a place you could belong again: the farm, the women's group, the Peace Tree, or none of them yet?"
  • Watch for: Forced proximity to someone who harmed the client; using activity to avoid grief. Working when social contact rises without symptom spikes.

4.18 Diaspora and indirect options, including client-authored ritual

  • Purpose / when: For clients abroad, or who decline face-to-face participation but want some form of acknowledgement. Restorative guidance allows indirect communication when people withdraw [source: Scottish Government 2017].
  • Steps: (1) Explore indirect routes: a family member speaking for them, a letter, a message carried by a trusted person. (2) If a private ritual of remembrance or release is wanted, the client designs it; the therapist helps structure it. Therapeutic-ritual methods described by family therapists (e.g. van der Hart; Imber-Black and Roberts) are [uncertain: not verified] here. (3) Do not imitate or re-enact the community's bonfire or cleansing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you can't be there, what would you want to happen, and who would you want to carry your words?"
  • Watch for: Guilt at absence; idealising the village process from afar. Working when the client feels some sense of completion on their own terms.

4.19 Consultation to reconciliation programmes

  • Purpose / when: When a therapist advises an NGO or community programme. The evaluation's authors call for redesigning reconciliation to reduce psychological costs while keeping social benefits [source: Cilliers et al. 2016 abstract]; specific design changes below are [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Recommend pre-event screening and informed choice that includes the evaluation's findings. (2) Advise on stepped mental-health support after events and referral pathways. (3) Support committee training and supervision. (4) Advise on gender-sensitive arrangements, given scholarship on gendered power relations within the programme [source: Martin 2021]. (5) Respect community ownership: advise, do not take over.
  • Example language (illustrative): "The social gains are real; what can we put around the bonfire so fewer people carry it home alone?"
  • Watch for: Importing clinical models that override local ownership; competence limits in an unfamiliar culture. Working when local staff adopt screening and referral as their own practice.

5. Handling problems

The published sources name several community-level difficulties; responses for the therapist are [synthesis] unless marked.

  • Distress rises after the bonfire. Expected for some participants: the evaluation found increased depression, anxiety and PTSD [source: J-PAL summary]. Response: normalise without minimising, increase monitoring, offer trauma-focused treatment (4.13, 4.14), and check suicide risk.
  • Anger or violence at or after a bonfire. The case study reports anger and violence at some bonfires requiring the committee to intervene [source: Caulker and Webber]. Response: safety first, with the client deciding whether to inform the committee; review retaliation risk; avoid further contact until safe.
  • Client feels pushed into taking part. Family, chiefs or neighbours may expect participation. Response: return to 4.3; affirm the right to decline or to take part indirectly; rehearse how to say no; support guilt after withdrawal, as restorative guidance recommends [source: Scottish Government 2017].
  • Pressure to forgive. Response: separate forgiveness from reconciliation and coexistence (4.8); do not treat forgiveness as a goal of therapy; explore religious teachings on forgiveness with the client's faith leader if wanted.
  • Sexual violence disclosed. Response: individual, survivor-centred treatment; face-to-face processes are very rarely appropriate [source: Scottish Government 2017]; some rape cases could not be resolved through Peace Trees [source: Caulker and Webber]; follow safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties in your jurisdiction, especially where children are or were involved.
  • Fear of prosecution or exposure. Ex-combatants' fear of the Special Court delayed some bonfires [source: Caulker and Webber]. Response: explain confidentiality limits before details; seek legal advice where needed; do not encourage disclosure in therapy beyond clinical need.
  • Gender and status exclusion. Chiefs resisted including women and youth; some ritual traditions were male-only [source: Caulker and Webber]; women's experiences of the programme were diverse and shaped by gendered power relations [source: Martin 2021]. Response: explore what the client could and could not say; validate exclusion; consider women's spaces such as Peace Mothers' groups.
  • Politicisation. Politicians sought to associate with the programme, which countered this by restricting events to community members [source: Caulker and Webber]. Response: keep therapy non-partisan; explore any sense that the client's story was used.
  • Community scepticism toward outsiders. After many post-war interventions, communities were sceptical; the programme respected refusals and returned when invited [source: Caulker and Webber]. Response: practise cultural humility; acknowledge your outsider position; let the client teach you.
  • Stuck clients (no movement after many sessions). Response: revisit the cultural formulation; check for unaddressed grief, moral injury or spiritual fear; consider whether the community process itself is the obstacle (e.g. living near someone who harmed them).
  • Non-attendance after the event. Response: brief outreach by agreed means; avoid interpreting absence as resistance; offer a lighter-touch check-in.
  • Ruptures (the client feels the therapist judged the culture or the ceremony). Response: name it, apologise for the misattunement, ask how the client experienced your comment; repair before continuing.
  • Overwhelm in session while recounting testimony. Response: stop narrative work, ground, return to stabilisation (4.7), resume at a slower pace.
  • Therapist's competence and dual roles. Response: seek cultural consultation and supervision; avoid holding a community role (committee member, ceremony participant) with a client; weigh multiple relationships (APA Ethics Code Standard 3.05); hold appropriate professional insurance for any community work.
  • Vicarious trauma in the therapist. Response: supervision, caseload balance, peer support.
  • Human-rights critiques of community processes. Reports by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or the UN specifically on Fambul Tok are [uncertain: not verified]. Scholarly critiques address the idealisation of the "local" and gendered power relations [source: Martin 2021]. Response: hold the community process and individual rights together; never ask a client to subordinate their safety to communal harmony.

Sources

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