183 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE During the course of the workshops, it was discovered that the victims are more at ease when they are all from the same community rather than a group of strangers; this allowed them to gain the trust and respect sooner rather than later. The participants themselves stated that it is easier to maintain confidentiality if they are familiar with each other. At the beginning of the workshop the participants were asked to keep everything that is said in the circles confidential. Security reasons were also given for having the group coming from one area, as they said that it was easier to identify an impostor or informer amongst them, which it is not a trivial concern. This emphasizes how the culture of fear that has been perpetuated by the Zimbabwe government has caused mistrust and fear between people. The process was facilitated by two trained facilitators whose duties were to hold the circles making sure that all the workshop agreements were being respected. A talking stone is always used in the circles. This ensures that the person holding the stone is the only person who could talk and everyone else is obliged to listen until the person had put down the stone in the centre of the circle. This has been shown to be crucial to creating a framework for both open, respectful listening and confidence in talking. At the beginning of the process, both primary and secondary victims were participants at the workshops, but it was later decided that the programme should concentrate on primary victims due to the high numbers of such victims. suggests, the participants are reminded of the healing properties of nature, the trees, grass, water and mountains. The relationship with nature is felt to be critical as the assumption is that most people have an instinctive response to its healing powers.a Through being in nature, people reconnect with their fundamental abilities for connectedness and inter-dependency. This social aspect has a particularly powerful cultural and spiritual relevance to all Zimbabweans, and is also held by many traditional cultures around the world. The tree is also used as a device for the telling of stories, and participants communicate their lives through drawings of a tree, with the soil (culture), roots (family), trunk (early development), branches, (later development), leaves (important people), fruits (high points), and bugs (disappointments/trauma), providing the frame for this communication. Working with nature Story telling The workshops preferably take place in a rural setting, where participants live together in community, and can spend time outdoors in nature, both as a group and on their own. As the name, the Tree of Life, The telling of individual stories takes place in a circle which offers a step-by-step process of building on trust and respect. It allows participants to share the accounts of their experiences and listen to one another Body work T O R T U R E Vol um e 19 , N um b er 3 , 2 00 9 At the beginning of each day of the workshop, there is a session on body work. This consists of simple exercises using breathing, balancing, and relaxation as a means of reconnecting with the body and releasing tension. The process of being violated – through torture, intimidation, beatings, and rape – has the frequent effect on the “victim” of becoming disconnected from their bodies. The participants find these exercises very useful and they become more holistically aware of their bodies, not just the aches and pains resulting from the abuses they suffered.