you... you come back to the real world... you still have to struggle with the same environment. Like that tree is still surrounded by the elements that hurt it, but how is it surviving? I think that is where the big challenge is. Having discussed the reality of their struggles, the participants unanimously agreed that the process had been worthwhile and that they still found it helpful as they tried to adopt a new perspective in their lives. We settled on the analogy of positive living used by persons living with HIV/AIDS. As “E” expressed it: “You are not denying the fact that you are infected, but you have ways of living with it, not as a victim of it, but being able to contain it, to have victory over it.” The point was that while circumstances had not changed and were unlikely to change in the near future, participants had been equipped by the workshop to live, not as victims but as something above that. This process is similar to that described in a study of breast cancer survivors (Sherman et al., 2012) who learnt that they had to develop a new mind-set which, while not dismissing their experiences of cancer, required a new way of thinking about their experience and its impact on life in terms of relationships with oneself and others (p. 263). I understood the participants to be saying that, in the same manner as the cancer survivors, they needed to create a “new normal” they had control over, using the, coping and self reflection skills learnt at the workshop. Data, as reported just above from the study, seems to indicate that most of the participants gained an ability to cope better with their circumstances. Agency The second lesson, related to the above point, was the issue of agency—that participants could still take charge of their destiny in spite of the debilitating circumstances around them. One participant “T” expressed it this way: So the thing I am trying to say is fine, all these things happened, but we should not glue ourselves to those things and say that all those things happened and my life ends here. No, you can still live within that situation... His point was that being at the TOL workshop had been like receiving counseling and becoming equipped to live through their circumstances. For him, whether a sick person healed or not depended on that person’s attitude. One may receive the best medical care, but if he/she has already given up on life, he/she will not heal. “B’s” concern was that: ...At the end of the day, is for our people to be healed...to be empowered to be able to live the next day without acrimony, without hurt ... because as long as we remain with hurt … we may not be able to live with history of the past that which is distorted...