Table 3.

Sources of the support among the students exposed to the school shootings in acute phase (T1): who provided the most important help and what was perceived as healing element(s)

Main source of the support	n=236 n (%)	Healing elements	Examples
Own family and close relatives	134 (56.8)	• Intimacy • Love	• Intimacy and speaking about normal daily life issues • Mother and her genuine concern and love • I have the best dad in the world
Friends and fellow-students	127 (53.8)	• Peer support • Understanding because of similar experience	• It is easiest to talk to the close persons you can trust • Just being close, total presence, and feeling of understanding without words
Teachers and other school staff	14 (5.9)	• Togetherness • Understanding because of similar experience	• The best help comes from people who had experienced the same tragedy • We feel attached to our school, and that helps us
Crisis psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals	61 (25.8)	• Sharing the story • Professionalism • Psychoeducation • Therapeutic interventions • Enhancing safety	• Sessions with the psychiatrist consisted of real listening and deep understanding, not only of being together • The crisis psychologist listened, supported, and forwarded to the medical doctor • Crisis workers provided information about how to cope and how to deal with normal daily life issues and what helps you to continue your life • The groups in which we were together, that was a decisive experience in recovery • The awareness that there are crises workers available if needed, that has helped me
Church and parish	6 (2.5)	• Spiritual consolation	• My own parish and belonging to it, I was allowed to share and leave my worries to God
None or I cannot say	18 (7.6)		• I know that there was all kind of help available. But I did not have time to go, and also the strangeness of others does not help

Note: The percentages do not sum up to 100.0 because students mentioned more than one source of support and reasons as healing elements.