Corpus Christi College staff have Original Pain Therapy workshop

Sometimes, it is tempting to lament the negative state in which our country seems to find itself. National and global tensions feel about as sharp as they historically have been. Yet despite any obscurity, God’s light continues to light the way through darkness, and after a one-day Original Pain Therapy (OPT) workshop, it is clear: God’s light shines in the form of Trinbagonian Catholic educators, especially the teachers, staff, and administration of Corpus Christi College of Occupational Education & Training (CCC), located in Diego Martin.

Since assuming the position of principal, Sr Sarah Waterman O Carm, along with Vice-Principal Heather Burris-Thomas, have been committed to the development of Corpus Christi College, with a special focus on what our Church calls the “integral human development” of its teachers.

The idea is that through caring for and empowering CCC teachers and staff, CCC students will continue to grow and learn in a happy, safe, well-balanced, and holy environment. OPT is fundamental to this mission.

OPT helps participants do something that could seem difficult these days—to remember. Participants are asked to remember who they are—beloved children of God—and OPT asks teachers to remember the fact that they do not only impact students, but also their families, ultimately shaping the future of our Church and nation. In a sentence, OPT asks teachers to remember to let God love the world through them.

Thanks to the expertise of Lorraine Pouchet and Anna Mc Letchie-Burke, CCC teachers were helped to remember that a person’s inherent, inviolable human dignity comes from being made in the image and likeness of God who loves us. OPT replaces the fraudulent misconception that a human being’s worth is determined by one’s individual achievements, failures, or even their childhood trauma. When the wisdom of OPT takes root in a person’s heart, it can rewrite negative narratives into transformational trajectories.

Our memories tell us that our Trinbagonian nation and Caribbean region are places of community and resilience. We are people of hope, with faith comparable to our biblical heroes and heroines. We have come to know that regardless of our challenges, God continues to liberate us. Of course, who could forget ‘God is a Trini?’

However, our young people, especially the adolescents of our nation, find it difficult to discover these truths about our collective memory. Their stories sound different from the stories of earlier generations.

Our youth’s stories are filled with uncertainty, discouragement, fear, and in extreme cases, despair. We only need to listen to a teenager for about five minutes before this becomes apparent. Nevertheless, the truth of our region remains: we are a place of community and resilience; we are people of hope.

Still, it would be unjust of us to expect our young people to come to these truths on their own. In the same way we try to build our Church and transmit our faith through good catechesis, good Catholic education [all Catholic school learning and activities, not just Religious Education] is key to crafting a better world.

And if it is not already apparent, good Catholic education comes through good Catholic teachers, which requires good Catholic schools to nurture and care for the teachers and staff whom God has entrusted to schools’ responsibility.

Naturally, good teachers will form countless good students, who will then grow to become the good women, men, mothers, fathers, priests and Religious who will help make our Church and our region much better places.

When schools care for their teachers, teachers care for their schools, and primarily for their students. Of course, this insight applies across many institutions, not just educational ones.

OPT can be an effective aid to any organisation’s mission. In a communal sense, OPT is a powerful first step institutions can take towards caring for the people who uphold them, and in an individual sense, OPT is a serious step towards healing the wounds and carrying the crosses each of us bear.

CCC now begins this new academic year 2026-2027 with renewed focus and zeal, ready to usher God’s love into the lives of its students. Please, pray for us, and support us financially, so our girls can be given the robust Catholic education they need, so that they can bring about the Reign of God, beginning here, in Trinidad & Tobago.

– Angelo Kurbanali