Feeling a strong pull to do something I decided to create

completely and permanently."

some space in my busy schedule and also flew to Sri Lanka

He responded that there wasn't. He had done enough. He

at the beginning of March alongside a friend and with the help

was still mesmerized by the spiral, so I tucked in some ego-

of a national newspaper. The aim was to explore whether

strengthening suggestions. For a seven-year-old boy these

there is a need for some professional help with psycho-social

have to include improved football skills or you won't be

post-traumatic responses, and maybe to set something up

invited back, so to speak. Even though his eyes had been

open the entire time, I still counted him up to 5 to awaken

together with Aleksandra.

Spending four weeks in Sri Lanka and being confronted with

After this session the eye movements disappeared

the aftermath of a disaster on this scale changes priorities and

completely and to date have shown no sign of returning.

puts all those small issues, which seem to overshadow our

Instead, I have a 7 year old who now wants me to "do

hypnosis" on him to score a hat trick in next week's match.

lives, into a new perspective. Without going into details I can

Ah, the joy of hypnotherapy is in its versatility!

honestly say that I got more out of the experience than I was

able to `give' to the people of this beautiful island. My experi-

Brigid Reilly lives and works in Dorset and can be contacted

ences range from the heartbreaking over the mind-blowing to

via email: info@hypnoexcel.co.uk or phone on: 01929-

the outright rewarding, and I felt humbled by the reactions of

the Sri Lankan people and blessed that I was able to con-

tribute something, although on a very small scale.

Spending most of my time at the Southwest coast, working in

an orphanage and later at Peraliya refugee camp, I neverthe-

less met up with Aleksandra in the East for six days. I can

only pay respect to her achievements and to the courage she

showed by travelling to Sri Lanka to help in the early stages,

when the devastation, especially in the East, was at its most

disturbing when bodies were pulled out of the rubble every

day and when food, water, medicine and electricity was

scarce. Aleksandra was involved in everything from food distri-

bution to medical care, from setting up teaching groups in dif-

ferent camps for children, to travelling frequently to Colombo

to buy supplies and from helping with livelyhood issues to re-

construction of electricity and water supplies. Having seen the

area and talked to people I can assure everybody who con-

tributed to Alex's funding that your money was put to excep-

tionally good use.

Happy Exeter students after passing their Certificate exams.

The grief and loss are still tangible and it will, in my estima-

Congratulations!

tion, take a long time for the country and its people to recover.

There are many long-term trauma effects. I have witnessed

fear reactions to water and the sea, seen strong grief and

despair, and heard many stories of suicides and of the exces-

sive use of coping devices like alcohol and drugs in the

camps. The Tsunami scare on the 28th of March didn't help.

When I went back to Peraliya camp on the 29th in the morn-

I am sure that we were all

ing quite a few families had already decided to leave the coast

affected by the images and

for good. It was sad to see this set-back in the `healing

reports of the devastation

process'.

caused by the Tsunami in

December 2004, which

My admiration for the many self-financing volunteers in Sri

destroyed large areas in Asia

Lanka who, like Aleksandra, are working tirelessly and very

and killed and wounded many

effectively in all those places and on all those issues, which

people. One of our former stu-

are not covered sufficiently by the Sri Lankan Government

dents, Aleksandra Kendel,

and the Charities, is great. I am planning to go back to Sri

decided to act in response to

Lanka in August to get more involved in post-traumatic

the event and flew out to Arugam on the East coast of Sri

release work. If any of you are interested in information or in

Lanka in January 2005 to help. At the time I contacted all

contributing through expertise or funds, please email me at

Exeter students on my mailing list, forwarding Alex's appeal

kamdaris@btopenworld.com and I will keep you informed.

for funds. I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of

you who contributed.