ABSTRACT
Participants described a number of failed strategies in their attempts to escape from unique 'places of terror'. These attempts often served to exacerbate people's sense of alienation and hopelessness and, in many situations, added another layer of despair, helplessness and disempowerment to their distress. Participants' accounts suggested that the decision to attend, though often motivated by a desire to escape intense emotional distress and, frequently, a disillusionment with professional forms of help, was accompanied by a deep mistrust of and discomfort around people and an intense fear of more rejection and disillusionment. From the different descriptions of people's early experiences it is clear that the same inter-related dialogical processes that had progressively steered people into 'a place of terror' could also play a part in healing. Many people reported experiencing very powerful 'somatic stories' of hope, friendship and belonging as a result of attending their first GROW meeting.
