The psychologists' role at a common grave is a varied one.
We work at three phases:
before, during and after the exhumation.
And we work in three contexts,
or three populations:
accompanying the families, the relatives,
close and distant ones,
also, we work with the intervention teams;
and we work on what we call "social dimension", too.
So the grave becomes a space for learning,
in which everyone around it,
the associations,
the key people from the village where the exhumation takes place,
acknowledge and come by the exhumation
to get to know what it is happening there.
We even favour for visitors to come to the site.
In the "before stage", what we do is to prepare the expectations,
basically, the relatives'.
"What will I find there?", "in which conditions?".
We intervene between relatives, who may not agree
on the approach for the process.
and between families, Nin the same family
and between the different families involved.
At the grave's side, we support the emotional processes that occur,
We have even quantified which emotional processes occur,
clarified that there is no hate, no resentment,
that the processes are positive,
useful for the families in order to close a wound, to finish the mourning.
In the "during stage", the dig,
we also receive other families,
who come from other places to tell their story,
and to give us new clues about new locations.
We also take good care of all symbolic elements:
photos of the people lying in the grave may be exhibited at the entrance,
there may be some letters or drawing exercises,
what sometimes happens,
coming from the close, as well as, from the distant relatives.
We try to make certain stops in the exhumation
to explain to the people who are there
and to the ones working there,
how the exhumation is working,
in which moment we are,
even if it is relevant to stop the exhumation
in order to listen to a given relative
to whom we take testimony at the side of the grave.
With the operating teams, more or less the same
what we do is, from a non ill-making process,
we, as part of the teams,
give them the possibility to speak,
that they can express their emotions.
We cannot forget,
that the exhumations are often carried out by students,
or, sometimes, archeologists,
and they are not so frequent as finding bones from some years ago
with evident signs of violence
also, a big pressure in the surroundings, from the families, and even the media.
We attempt to facilitate the possibility to talk.
And in that third process, the one of the communities,
our aim is to turn the grave into an educational space
of awareness.
Perhaps, in the different types of graves,
in the intensive graves, or those that spread out over time,
we try that the associations from the context,
that the key informers,
from politicians to priests, to the high-school teachers,
know that an exhumation is taking place,
that they receive suitable explanations and they can go there.
And, later, in the, let´s say, "post-digging" process,
what we do is to accompany the waiting process,
which, sometimes, is long, around a waiting time of a year.
We keep reporting to the relatives,
we organize acts of sensitization in the area
we recognize, gather all that happened during the exhumation
so, when that last moment comes,
when the remains are handed over, and buried,
everything is perfectly ready.
Mediation is done to set how that moment will be,
so everyone agrees as much as possible
in that moment of closing.
So when all the pressure of the excavation is gone
the group of outsiders, the media, and so on,
the relatives still feel protected, accompanied
that they feel taken care of, somehow,
which, in any case, is our main aim.