Defensa Comunitaria is a project of the Chiapas Community Defenders Network, a grassroots human rights group which has over 9,000 community participants in six regions of Chiapas, and functions primarily through seventeen “defenders” chosen by and responsible to their own communities. Defensa Comunitaria will meet the need for mental health services in rural Chiapas, with a particular focus on those issues arising out of the military/political conflict in the region, and the frequent abductions, imprisonment and sometimes torture of those identified as peasant leaders. Other stressors include family separation, paramilitary attacks on communal land, sexual assaults, domestic violence, and extreme poverty. The consequences for individual and communal mental health include post-traumatic stress, communal disaster stress, major depression, and somatic disorders.

An experienced licensed social worker will work with the indigenous communities to facilitate a communal healing process utilizing various clinical and indigenous mental health practices. Methods will include narrative therapy, crisis management, community disaster relief and recovery, stress management, psycho-social education, and culturally-appropriate group therapy known as pláticas or “talking circles.”