Dialogue groups: TRT's guidelines for working through intractable conflicts by personal storytelling.

Abstract

This article describes how telling the story of one's personal experiences in a small group comprised of members from opposing sides of intractable conflicts can help work through some of the ongoing intergenerational effects of violence. The concept of through, which underlies the rationale for using this method, is reviewed. This story-telling approach was developed by the members of TRT (To Reflect and Trust). It was initially composed of German descendants of Nazi perpetrators and Jewish descendants of Holocaust survivors. The original members met annually for 4 to 6 days at a time, and in recent years have been joined by others actively working to reduce tensions in the current conflict areas of Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Palestine-Israel. The guidelines for dialogue work in such groups which have evolved from the TRT encounters are presented and discussed, with examples of how they have been adapted for use in the Northern Ireland and Palestinian-Israeli contexts.