Erasmus+ Project: A Resilient Life – Deepening Our Understanding of Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Resilience

Erasmus+ Project: A Resilient Life – Deepening Our Understanding of Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Resilience

Over the course of 2024, IHA took part in an Erasmus+ project titled “A Resilient Life”, focused on exploring and strengthening resilience and trauma-awareness among professionals working with vulnerable populations. This international collaboration brought together organisations from around the world.

The first phase of the project was conducted online, featuring a series of insightful sessions with participants from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. These virtual meetings provided a space to exchange knowledge and experiences on the realities of (secondary) traumatic stress. Through discussions, case studies, and practical exercises, we explored how STS can affect our work and how it can subtly shape the dynamics of our professional lives and personal well-being.

The online component laid a strong foundation for reflection and learning. However, it was in February 2025, during an intensive 6-day in-person training in Corinth, Greece, that the project came fully alive. Two of our team members had the incredible opportunity to attend this training, hosted by compassionate facilitators. Together with other professionals, they immersed themselves in transformative practices aimed at fostering resilience, self-awareness, and inner freedom.

Throughout the training, we engaged in experiential workshops, mindfulness practices, and deep dialogue. We learned powerful tools for navigating emotional or compassion fatigue and burnout, and building strategies for sustainable self-care, reaching for high-functioning. These tools are not only valuable for our individual well-being but are essential in ensuring that we continue to provide effective, empathetic support to those we aim to support with our work.

The combination of theory, lived experience, and hands-on practice was both grounding and empowering. It reinforced our belief that caring for others begins with caring for ourselves, and that resilience is not a fixed trait but a skill that can be nurtured and strengthened from the inside-out.

We return from this experience with new insights, practical methods, and, a renewed sense of connection—with ourselves and with our colleagues.

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