Graduate from Craig’s Table

Just a few weeks back a very frustrated person arrived at Craig’s Table, she was angry, she trusted no one she was determined to shutter the world away so no more pain could impact on her. There was no hint of a smile, there was no room for laugher and definitely fun of any kind was banned. 

Come forward to the 31st August this person will Graduate from Craig’s Table. Today the laughter that filled Craig’s Table was amazing, as this person had found a toy dinosaur head that roars; we found a hook to hang the head on the wall near the back door so when it is turned on the sensor will pick up movement and the dinosaur will roar. All of this and a great deal more from a person who just fought against being trusted and respected and a person who deeply believed that life would never provide any reason to have joy. 

There are still rough spots, there are still issues that challenge this person each day. Only now instead of anger being the first reaction or protection, this person is able to take a step back and looks to see if the challenge is worth the effort to take on or if it is a challenge that can be simply ignored: there are times when this person still prefers to just disappear and spend time working in the garden and then there are other times when it can take almost 2 hours for this person to leave as the conversation just flows.

What is even more astounding is for all the briskness of this particular person, the other participants know that they can rely on and be supported in return by this person. 

The change that has come into place is far more than even I could have hoped for, right at the start it was easy to see that the brash exterior was nought more than a layer of self-protection. It was in place to push people away and try to prevent others from seeing the vulnerability that was really there. But there was more than that, the brashness was also an attempt to disguise the level of intelligence and compassion that were lurking just below the surface. 

It is people such as this one that makes all the long hours of research worth the effort because the change is so immense and so impressive; this person now moves into employment search with a new set of real skills and a new understanding about themselves. 

One of the questions I am asked the most is “is Craig’s Table for everyone?” and as with far too many other things within workers compensation the answer is not definite. The answer is “yes, no, maybe and not right now”.

Each participant needs to be ready to move into the next stage of their workers compensation journey, they need to be able to accept that what was in place pre-injury is not coming backand they need to have an acceptance that the future really does belong to each of them. It helps if each participant has an acceptance that Craig’s Table does everything differently and that whilst on the surface everything looks soft and simple; the organised framework is very solid and the conversation will always be about moving forward to life post workers compensation. It is interesting to hear the way each participant changes their tone of conversation from “I can’t” to “can I” to “this is what I am doing” it is also interesting to watch the way the participants walk, they start being very tentative and unsure of how they will all grow together and within a short space of time they are looking out and looking after each other. There are lots of “how do I do this” or “I don’t need to know this” and then there is a lot of “let me help you” and “try to do this this way”. 

And in just 12 weeks from start to finish a group of strangers are work mates and so proud of what they have achieved as an individual and prouder of what they have achieved as a group.  

Each group finds that Graduation Day is such a definitive day, they have taken the brokenness of what was their life as an injured worker and turned themselves into a new person who just happens to have an injury. 

The best part of Craig’s Table (at least for me) is that I get to go to work there every day, I get to see the transformation of so many truly astounding people with so much talent that just needs to be uncovered and then fostered into reality. 

As with the person who is graduating on the 31st, things just change laughter fills lives and hope is real.  It just doesn’t get any better than Craig’s Table. 

Yours in service
Rosemary

www.craigstable.net.au

rosemary@craigstable.net.au

SKYPE Rosemary2412 

28th August 2018