A meeting place for those of us affected by post-traumatic stress, complex post-traumatic stress, or whatever term you like to use, who want to share in each other's post-traumatic growth journeys, reflect on the personal and societal issues most affecting us, and co-create the principles by which RAT works to challenge misinformation about, and mistreatment and misrepresentation of trauma survivors.

The principles are:
 

SELF-DISCOVERY: using theatre- and performance-inspired techniques, we will commit some time in each session to checking in with the parts of ourselves that we usually feel we have to hide away, so we can more safely and in supportive company connect with our values, ambitions, and potential.

 

COMMUNITY-BUILDING: from this place of openness, we will share whatever reflections we wish to share with each other - be that through conversation, movement, dramatic improvisation, creative writing or visual art - and from there build into communication about what personal and societal themes are most important to survivors, to inform our future projects.

 

CO-PRODUCTION: the number one rule of trauma-conscious practice is agency: giving voice and choice to survivors, and responding transparently. We are in the first few months of our life as a charity, and believe it is crucial to start this journey with genuine co-production at its root. So we will finish each session by looking at aspects of how we operate - our vision, values, key performance indicators, theory of change - and make sure that they are balanced and responsive to the wealth and range of humanity in our community.