“Emotional ventilation.” A term that may sound unknown to most readers but that represents a key tool in any tragedy or mourning: speak, be heard, be cared for. So easy on paper, so complicated in a setting of desolation. So necessary. “Emotional ventilation” is a recurring expression of Commander María Romero García-Aranda. He uses it to define what was, in part, his mission in Valencia. She is a military psychologist. And along with 24 other colleagues from the same specialty they were the soul healers at DANA.
It is perhaps one of the most unknown missions that the Armed Forces in Valencia have undertaken. Images of soldiers of all specialties sweeping, rebuilding, cleaning and clearing chaos are common. Searching through the mud. Evacuating people in extreme situations. All of them have discreet but firm support: the psychological support that their colleagues provide, both to them and to the affected neighbors.
Commander María Romero García-Aranda is one of them. It is part of the Military Health Corpsalthough it has been integrated into the Parachute Brigade for a year. At 39 years old, he has participated in numerous international missions: from Lebanon to Latvia. And her work as a military psychologist strengthens the capabilities of soldiers who work to the point of exhaustion, often in inhospitable situations or settings.
“In the end we transmitted the idea in the Army that psychology not only repairs discomfortIt also strengthens, it is an exercise of protection and prevention against stressful events. For example, we prepare a lot for adaptation before going to the operations area. And there, on the ground, we do intervention work,” says the commander in conversation with They got up. And he adds: “There are less and less prejudices towards psychology. It is super useful, not only in terms of care, but also in terms of prevention. It strengthens a lot.”
Its usual mission is to provide care and follow-up, impart preventive and strengthening plans to members of the Armed Forces. “But… we are prepared and we are very flexible,” defends the soldier before talking about her deployment in Valencia: this Friday, November 29, one month has passed of the beginning of the storms that have torn the existence of the residents of Paiporta, Alfafar, Benetúser, Sedavi… and thus up to 87 municipalities affected by DANA.
“Extreme measures”
“It is not usual for us to deal with civilians. But in extreme situations, extreme measures“, defines the commander. The province was mired in a hell of mud and mud when he first visited. First was the Military Emergency Unit (UME) with its own psychologists. Later, given the magnitude of the intervention, psychological capacities were reinforced with new specialists. It should be remembered that this is the largest military deployment in peacetime, exceeding 8,000 troops.
Each of those 25 psychologists joined the military units to which they were assigned. Commander Romero he did it with BRIPACwhich in turn distributed its capacities to different parts of the province. “I became divided: one day with the First Flag, another day with the Second, the next with the sappers…”, says the soldier. He talks about hard moments, but with integrity and pride in the performance of his teammates.
What does a military psychologist do in a tragedy of such magnitude? How to begin to address the unapproachable? “I joined the work that (BRIPAC members) did daily, cleaning and supporting, in Paiporta and Alfafar. I also dedicated myself to go house to houseof the civilian population, and see what their needs were.”
The military psychologist speaks of “a lot of organization” and “division of tasks” on the part of the soldiers who were already intervening in the crisis: “A lot of desire to work, each one to contribute their grain of sand”. He also confesses how “shocking” it is to face such a “critical situation.” You had to dig through the mud to reach the invisible: the story, the pain, the soul of the victims.
“It’s just that… they are situations that go growing up. There are people who have lost their homes. There are people who have lost their homes and their businesses. There are people who have lost their homes, their businesses and their loved ones.” Is a collective trauma where the individual threatens to become distorted or lose meaning. Psychologists also fight against this tide, listening and caring, with words or, often, with the silence of a hug.
“Dignity”
“I approached it in the best possible way. I would see people cleaning or knock on doors and say: ‘I’m María, I’m a military psychologist, how are you? What do you need?‘. Above all, those moments are of emotional ventilation: it is telling it, so that the head can integrate everything that is happening, to assimilate that it is going to be part of their lives, that they are going to have to live with it.”
The commander points to a priority need for DANA victims; especially during the first stages of the tragedy, when everything was impassable, impossible to open any business, where the devastation devastated the material and the human. And he sums it up in one word: “Dignity”.
“On a psychological level,” he points out firmly, “what people needed most was to recover minimum living conditions. Walking through its streets, that’s why the Army cleaned the streets a lot. Live in their homes, recover businesses. Begin their grief for their loved ones…that is why the search for victims is so important. They needed to recover their dignity and their lives. This is going to take more time. But in the first moments everything starts with emotional ventilation.”
And the soldiers whom the commander and the other 24 specialists support psychologically? Those who go where no one else does, in the harshest conditions? Those who search rivers and flooded areas in search of what no one would want to find, which are the bodies of the missing? How are they found? “They are fine. They understand that the work now is very significant, they bring real change to many lives. The hours and efforts don’t matter.”.
A vocation that, it is deduced from the commander herself, she shares and is what she wears in her uniform, whether in Valencia or on missions abroad. But he also does it looking at his own home, where they await him. his 6 and 7 year old children. “I tell them what there is, because they have to understand and I want them to be proud of what their mother does. Also so that they know that they can reconcile their professional needs and, at the same time, dedicate all the time they deserve.”
Source: www.vozpopuli.com
