Last week the manual was officially presented see to protect. Keys to understanding violence against children, girls and adolescents and to develop effective protection measures, that we have elaborated my partner Pepa Horno and I from Spiral Consulting Children for UNICEF Spain. As usual with My publications, sector la manual entry see to protect on that blog and expand on some relevant aspects here.

The manual has three elements that are significant to share here.

First, broadly systematizes the fundamental concepts to understand violence. Many people going through therapy need to understand what has happened to them and how, and although normally the accompaniment process is enough, sometimes they ask me for a reference to continue expanding. It's manual, although it is technical and is aimed at professionals who work with children, and adolescents, can also serve people with sufficient therapeutic work.

On the other hand, and expanding on that line, the manual is also useful for psychotherapists who want to update their knowledge and skills. With the activities that are proposed throughout each of the chapters we can expand our sensitivity and our ability to accompany processes that have to do with violence and trauma and with their healing.. The practical part is designed to cultivate awareness of our interventions.

By last, it is essential to remember the importance of the bodily dimension both in violence and its consequences (especially in trauma and dissociation) as in recovery. The entire manual has body aspects, and especially works on the feeling of well-being that it tries to build in the spaces that are Safe and Protective Environments.

The manual see to protect can be downloaded free of charge from the UNICEF Spain website.

I hope that is of interest, and I will love to know how you receive it.

F. Javier Romeo

as usual, In this blog I share elements that cross my work in Spiral Consulting Children with other personal and professional interests. In this case I have the satisfaction of sharing the guide Voices for change. Methodological guide for consulting children, girls and adolescents in residential care, what we make Pepa Horno and I stop UNICEF Spain.

It was a satisfaction to receive the commission to systematize this methodology in writing in an affordable way.. Part of our work when accompanying public and private entities of protection systems here in Spain and in other countries in their improvement processes consists of having the eyes of their protagonists: children, girls and adolescents living in protection centers. And they are specialists in their own lives, and often the institutions forget to ask them, unfortunately.

That is why it is a great joy that UNICEF Spain, within its work in promoting child and youth participation, has invited us to present a simple methodology to consult these children, and adolescents. We talk more about it in the blog of Spiral Consulting for Children.

Inside it is a technical and practical guide, For me, the aspect of the interpersonal communication: how can we adults talk, how we can create the right space and how we can listen to children, and adolescents. The words we use can open communication or close it, That is why the formulas that we present are very clear.: respect, inclusion and protagonism of the children themselves, and adolescents.

And we have also insisted on flexibility and adaptation to all children, and adolescents, providing guidelines to accommodate the intervention to functional diversity, cultural diversity (especially the unaccompanied migrant boys and girls) and those with mental health issues and trauma. Their voices, as we say in the title, well heard, can make a change for the better in their lives.

I hope you like it and that you find it interesting.

F. Javier Romeo

Part of my work as a psychologist and companion in personal and organizational processes consists of finding ways to communicate complex messages through metaphors and analogies.. In the initiative “Renewing from within”, that I already presented in this other post, we set out several challenges and proposals to improve the child protection system, girls and adolescents in Spain (And in the rest of the world).

This month I have collaborated with the article “We accompany with the person that we are”, that uses analogies between the measures we are taking in the face of the pandemic and the aspects we need to take care of when accompanying children, girls and adolescents who have suffered a lot. It is a way of bringing awareness to our way of being and doing, both personally and professionally.

And you will see that, as usual, I insist on the importance of training in trauma and remember the value of Focusing, I find it a very useful tool on a day-to-day basis..

I would love to know what you think and how you live it.

F. Javier Romeo

Online life has helped us create new virtual communities.

More than a year ago I received the invitation to be part of a reflection group on children in the protection system in Spain, coordinated by Alberto Rodriguez and Javier Múgica and in which we participate Antonio Ferrandis, mi partner of CI Spirals Pepa Horno, Marta Llauradó and my almost double namesake F. Javier Romeu Soriano. After these months of online meetings and multiple emails and drafts, last week we jointly published the founding document, Renewing from within. Seven challenges and proposals to improve the child protection system in Spain. The text speaks for itself, and can be downloaded from web page of “Renewing from within”.

Here I want to talk about something a little different: of the process itself. And I'll sum it up in three words: community, growth and awareness.

Community is what we have been creating. It has a part of chance, having met for child protection issues in different spaces. But it also has a part of intention. Make room for online meetings. Write each one their part of the document and revise the texts of the rest. share views, concerns and possible responses. Little by little we have been deepening our relationships, developing a common language that incorporates our different personalities and sensitivities. And we believe that part of the improvements in the protection system go precisely through creating community in many other spaces, with the kids, girls and adolescents and their families, within professional teams and intervention networks.

Further, we have advanced with a perspective of growth. Each person in our group has been collaborating and accompanying processes of the protection system for many years. That's why we can talk about the shortcomings, of the weak points that harm children, girls and adolescents and the families whom it is intended to protect. But we also remember the progress, the changes, sometimes very small, that make some aspects improve. That is why the document wants to collect both the challenges that we see in Spain and some proposals that we know, by personal or professional experience, that have worked before. And this process also makes us who reflect in a group grow.

Why, in the end, It is about developing the consciousness. when we have a “conscious gaze”, as my good friend says and partner at CI Spirals Pepa Horno, we see reality in a deeper way. We identify what happens in children, girls and adolescents and their families, but also in the professional teams and in the systems that would have to provide them with protection and support. And we also recognize what happens inside us, to channel intuitions and sensations towards concrete proposals that improve the lives of many people. We can't do this alone, we need a safe environment, community, help us move forward, to ask ourselves new questions and discover new answers.

From here I send my thanks to this magnificent team, and to life for making it possible.

And I invite you to read the document and pay attention to the following steps (we will be publishing monthly blog entries to continue delving into the different proposals). I see you on the website “Renewing from within”.

in celebration,

F. Javier Romeo

[Click here to read this post in English.]

The document Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system, what Pepa Horno, my partner in Childhood Consulting Spirals, and I have written for UNICEF Spain and UNICEF France, just posted, and is available in two versions:

• Download the original English version of Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system.
• Download the Spanish translation, Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system.

This is a technical publication that has to do with Child Protection, social intervention and human rights. In fact, We have the ideas and conscience of about a hundred professionals in the International Workshop in December 2019 en Madrid, that I helped facilitate (we explain more in our CI Spirals blog post). However, it is also a very personal document for me.

On the one hand, children, Unaccompanied and separated migrant girls and adolescents have a very special place in my heart. I worked in Morocco for several years with children, girls and adolescents living on the streets and I know the difficulties they have there, and what makes them risk their lives for the possibility of having a better future. I have also worked for several years in Madrid with adolescents at social risk, and many of them were migrant boys and girls with no family references, so I have accompanied their steps in the difficulties they encountered to build a good future in Spain. And to this day I still enjoy being able to speak with them in Moroccan Arabic, a language that I really like. I hope that this document helps professionals and also the general public to have a compassionate look towards these children., and adolescents, and to worry about their welfare. (You can read more about my career path on my LinkedIn profile).

On the other hand, currently this is a very sensitive issue, due to multiple factors. As lead editor, I have repeatedly used do Focusing as a process for structuring ideas and finding the right formulations. The keys to more protective narratives need to come from a consciousness firmly rooted in the body. Hope this brings clarity and also a deeper perspective to this whole topic, especially if the more intricate parts manage to be a little more explicit.

In conclusion, it has not only been a professional challenge, but also a very personal process. I hope you enjoy it.

F. Javier Romeo

[Read this entry in Spanish].

The document Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system, that Pepa Horno, my colleague at Espirales Consultoría de Infancia, and me have written for UNICEF Spain and UNICEF France, has just been published, and it is available in two versions:

• Download the original version in English of Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system.
• Download the translation into Spanish, Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system.

This is a technical publication that has to do with Child Protection, social intervention and human rights. In fact, we counted with the ideas and awareness of nearly a hundred professionals at an International Workshop in December 2019 in Madrid, that I co-facilitated (we explain more about it in our blog post in Espirales CI). However, it is also a very personal document for me.

On the one hand, Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children are very dear to me. I worked in Morocco for several years with children in street situation and I know of the difficulties there, what makes them risk their lives for the possibility of a better future. I also worked for several years in Madrid with at-risk youth, and many of them were unaccompanied migrant children, so I accompanied their steps in the difficulties of building a good future for themselves in Spain. And I still enjoy being able to speak with them in Moroccan Arabic, a language that I like very much. I hope that this document will help other professionals and the general public to have a compassionate regard to these children, and to care for their wellbeing. (More about my career path in my LinkedIn Profile).

On the other hand, this is currently a very sensitive issue, due to several factors. As main writer, I have used extensively Focusing with myself as a process to structure the ideas, and to find the adequate wording. The clues for more protective narratives need to come from an embodied awareness. I hope that this will bring clarity and also a deeper perspective to all this subject, with some of its intricacies made a bit more explicit.

In conclusion, it has been not only a professional challenge, but also a very personal process. I hope that you will enjoy it.

F. Javier Romeo

Last week the report was presented Arrive on time. Children, girls and adolescents at risk in Spain, which has been a satisfaction for me. Collect the results of the research we have carried out since Spiral Consulting Children in 2018 and 2019 for SOS Children's Villages of Spain. Although there is already one official blog entry for CI Spirals, I pick up the publications in which I also participate in this blog.

Two versions can be downloaded:

• The full report.
• The executive summary.

On a personal basis, I can say that taking care of the technical coordination of this research and carrying out the part that corresponded to me of data collection has brought me new learnings.

On the one hand, know new specific situations of child protection, and adolescents, risks they face and issues that need to be addressed.

For another, the importance of networking, seeing how municipalities that have internal coordination networks offer much better care to children, girls and adolescents who live in them and their families.

And third, the need to continue creating awareness in all the people involved:

• Municipalities and those responsible at the political level, so that they adequately prioritize a part of the population that, if not, has no resources other than what families can afford.
• Your professionals, especially in Social Services, so they can have a more conscious look at their work. In many cases with work overflow and lack of resources, but with a great commitment to the welfare of the population, a mindful look can help you better organize your care and resources, and to claim effectively what is necessary.
• The families, so that they can understand the difficulties and risks their sons and daughters face and can receive the help that is proposed to them.
• And children, and adolescents, so that they can be heard and given the prominence they deserve through the corresponding channels of participation.

And I end by thanking the entire research team for the collaborative work: Pepa Horno as general coordinator and Violeta Assiego, Itziar Fernandez, Golden Ferreres, Lourdes Juan and Santiago Míguez. It was an honor. And to Aldeas Infantiles SOS de España and its professionals for giving us this opportunity.

I hope that this investigation serves to shed light on all the work that we have pending to, as the title says, Arrive on time to take care of the children, girls and adolescents at risk.

F. Javier Romeo

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many children's organizations have struggled to create resources. From Spirales Consultoría de Infancia we have prepared several different materials.

In this blog post I want to share some videos that are also relevant to what I am sharing here, for many reasons.

1. They put forward messages that are clear and broad enough to discuss with children, girls and adolescents on the COVID-19 pandemic, so that they have clues about what is happening to them.
2. They propose a work on body awareness: from the model of the three intelligences to coming into contact with the breath, with the tension or with the different sensations. It is not Focusing, but aim for that sensitivity.
3. They are in Spanish, but also in French and Moroccan Arabic. I was excited to use in these videos these two languages ​​that have served me so much to communicate when I lived in Morocco and with migrant adolescents in Spain.

I leave you the videos below:

• Video “The three intelligences and rage”.

• Video “The three intelligences and fear”.

• Video “The three intelligences and asking for help”.

• Video “The three intelligences and sadness”.

I hope you find them interesting.

F. Javier Romeo

As a psychologist I divide my professional time between clinical practice accompanying people in their therapeutic process in Madrid and advice and training organizations related to the protection of children, and adolescents from Espirales Children Consulting. That's why I am pleased to present the manual Accompanying the wounds of the soul. Trauma in childhood and adolescence, I have prepared for the Regional Office of SOS Children's Villages in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more details on this publication, its contents and other publications related to child protection, you can read this blog entry Espirales CI.

Two versions of the document:

• Accompanying the wounds of the soul. Trauma in childhood and adolescence, a single page (comfortable printer for printing and reading in mobile or tablet).
• Accompanying the wounds of the soul. Trauma in childhood and adolescence, a double page (to see on the big screen or for printing on printing).

In this blog I have only to add that the explanation of the trauma as a process is based on A process model (A Process Model) Eugene Gendlin de, and explanations of emotional blockages that have met the trainers and coordinators Focusing Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin. You can find citations to specific sources on pages 16-20 of the text.

I hope the good results.

F. Javier Romeo

“Discovery, Community and growth. Those are the words you choose my body to symbolize the full experience of the First National Meeting Focusing Open. Organized by the Spanish Institute Focusing and coordinated by the Sevillian team Experiential Space, The meeting took place 12 to the 15 October in the charming Andalusian city of Seville, in the south of Spain”.

So begins my article in which I describe my experience for the In-Focus, the newsletter of the International Institute Focusing November 2017. In the space acotaron I have tried to reflect the international community for focusing the activities that we have shared in the First National Open Meeting Focusing, while I also wanted to reflect, in the tradition of Focusing and Experiential Philosophy, what has been my experience. From here I want to express my appreciation to Focusing Spanish Institute for convening this fantastic event, to the Experiential Space team led by Francisco Sivianes by coordinate and each speaker and each participant has made it possible, It has been an unforgettable experience.

• Read article “Discovery, Community and Growth. The 1st Open National Focusing Conference in Seville” in the original English version.
• Read the article translated into Spanish with the title “Discovery, Community and growth: the First National Open Focusing in Seville, Spain”.

Presentando a Catherine Torpey, Executive Director of TIFI. Photo Francisco Sivianes.

I left for this blog more personal aspects, as I experienced the honor of Catherine Torpey able to present, who came to Seville to present the international dimension of International Focusing Institute (GIRLS) as Executive director of the same. For me, I collaborate with Committee Membership for more than a year ago, It is a satisfaction that community Focusing on Spain (also participants from other countries) you can see first hand to Catherine and all that makes the International Focusing Institute.

My workshop “Focusing for the prevention of violence”. Photo Francisco Sivianes.

It was also a privilege to provide my workshop “Focusing and experiential work with violence”, in which I could share with people from five different nationalities some of the keys to use bodily sensations and focusing process to identify violence in a more complete and create security in our lives, an introductory version of my workshop “Focusing, body and safety: Focusing for the prevention of violence”.

There are many more memories, as each of the workshops I attended, or general conference, or the people I met (new or deeper)… You can see more about the environment of the different moments in the photographs taken by Francisco Sivianes (Focusing trainer and director of Experiential Space): of Thursday 12 October, of viernes 13 October and sábado 14 October of 2017.

This presentation is also available by Rosa Galiano with photos of his, Francisco Sivianes and others and published in the International YouTube channel Focusing Institute:

He has been an inspiration and I hope that also inspire you.

F. Javier Romeo