Traumatic experiences and other situations that affect the mental health happen to almost everyone throughout life, said Joyce Pring-Triviño, a TV presenter, podcast host, keynote speaker and content creator.
Sharing her healing journey during the launch event of Sagip Babae Foundation, she identified three insights that helped her as she grew up from an unstable and chaotic home and was diagnosed in 2016 with bipolar and depression and anxiety that she had to take medication.
First, consider a change in lifestyle. Pring pointed out the importance of lifestyle in order to attain holistic healing, which doesn’t just mean taking medicines or going to a therapist but also figuring out what one’s lifestyle is like and the kinds of relationships one has.
Second, ask for professional help. Pring believes in the power of seeking help. “It is so important to humble ourselves and realize ‘I need professional help’. It is not a bad thing to ask for help,” she said. “We are asking for help because we want to be better. And who doesn’t want to be better?”
Last but not least, have a relationship with God. Going through traumatic experiences, Pring said she asked herself, “Does God love me?” She said one fundamental need that all individuals have as human beings is the need to be loved.
“And I only got that feeling of safety and the fullness of love in my relationship with God,” she said.
Meanwhile, Pring described how healing should be. For one, it will come in spurts and in processes so healing will not be instant, she related.
“All things that are worth having are worth working out for,” Pring said. “Healing is a long and grueling process. It’s going to be hard; it might take months, even years, and sometimes you might even leave this world without being fully healed.”
For Pring, healing comes in peaks and lows. “There are days when you feel better, and there are days that you are not… It is so important to not compare the low point to the peak of another person. It is not a linear journey,” she stressed.
“We need to be in relationships for us to be able to survive; we need people around us to help us grow, to help us heal, to help us be the best versions of ourselves,” she added.
Pring said Sagip Babae serves as a reminder that healing can happen for anyone. “Try to find good relationships that will help you in that process because you cannot do it alone,” she advised.
With Sagip Babae’s Facebook community, every woman can feel safe and supported. Sagip Babae Founders Francesca Fugen and Melissa Rina Profeta’s own life experiences have helped inspire them to start the foundation.
Fugen and Profeta hope to provide comforting assistance to women victims aged 18 and above from all over the country.
The foundation provides young adult women who are survivors of sexual abuse with an avenue to voice their concerns and seek help without being judged.
A dedicated Facebook community is open to all women who need help and support. There will be webinars and bi-monthly group sessions, self-care strategies, well-being education as well as information on meditation and holistic healing.
The foundation will shoulder all expenses for therapy and medication within the first month of participation as well as half of the costs in the second and third months.
It also has a support system that can provide access to affordable health care professionals and practitioners specializing in mental health.
There are several ways to get involved with the foundation’s efforts, such as learning about the issue, spreading awareness as well as educating family, friends and other networks.
