Course Outline

HeartWork offers a Personal Growth course for women at the Johannesburg Prison. The course focuses on life-skills, interpersonal communication, and emotional healing. The following subjects are covered in weekly four-hour sessions over twelve weeks:

1 INTRODUCTION
- Introductions
- Setting group rules and goals

2 FEELINGS
- Discussion of the importance of understanding own feelings and others' feelings
- Identification of own feelings - positive and negative
- How feelings affect behaviour

3 BOUNDARIES
- Understanding the role of boundaries
- Identifying abuse
- Setting healthy boundaries

4 LOSS
- Identification of loss, especially in prison context
- Grieving process
- Development of coping mechanisms

5 ANGER
- Understanding and defining anger
- Appropriate responses

6 CONFRONTATION
- Listening skills
- Practising responsible confrontation

7 GUILT AND SHAME
- Personal areas of guilt and shame
- Healthy guilt and toxic shame
- Actions and strategies to manage these emotions

8 FORGIVING OURSELVES, FORGIVING OTHERS
- Taking 'guilt and shame' further, and forgiving ourselves
- How to work at forgiving those who have hurt us
- How to accept God's forgiveness

9 PLAY
- Game playing and the importance of relaxation and play in our lives

10 NURTURING SELF THROUGH CREATIVITY
- Creative potpourri box-making
- Experience of the healing nature of creativity

11 FEEDBACK
- Identification of personal healing and change experienced during the course
- Identification of improvements to the course

12 CERTIFICATE CEREMONY

Postal Address: PO Box 4327, Randburg, 2125, South Africa
Phone: 082-961-4074 (International: +27-82-961-4074)
E-mail: DebbieJ@global.co.za