Throughout the course and workshops we tried to create environments and ways to talk about violence without participants experiencing pressure to tell or listen to personal stories. This careful balance was met with enormous appreciation by one participant, in particular, who had experienced violence and knew firsthand about its impacts. Although eager to address the issue of violence and learning, she was extremely anxious at the beginning of the Project, worried she would be expected to talk about her experiences and open up memories from which she wanted to distance herself. In practice, we noticed that during the workshops some participants spoke generally of having experienced violence and that details of their experiences were sometimes shared in exchanges during breaks, when participation in the conversation could be by mutual agreement and those who didn't want to participate could easily avoid joining in.

The challenge to acknowledge violence in a safe way was compounded, given the purpose and focus of the VALTA Project. We wanted to examine violence, what constitutes violence, and how it operates in society and affects learning. Of necessity, we would be speaking, reading, and watching images of violence. To open up content about violence as safely as possible, we selected materials carefully. For example, when showing a video, we chose to play as little as possible of explicitly violent images while still making clear points about the nature of violence. In the first workshop, before we introduced difficult content, a therapist facilitated a session about how to protect ourselves emotionally in the face of violence. We also warned participants about the content and invited them to pay attention to what they needed to do to take care of themselves. The therapist attended portions of the course workshops and was available to participants if they wanted to talk with her. Throughout the Project, when we introduced images and materials that opened pain and the possibility of despair, we also offered creative and lifeaffirming exercises in an attempt to balance pain with pleasure.