14 - Therapeutic complexity

Summary

The story of Abed provides context for considering the importance of attending to complexity. Abed identified his problem as needing asylum. His story illustrates that the ‘overwhelmingness’ of severe forms of adversity can lead to oversimplification and polarised perceptions where refugees are seen as ‘traumatised’ or ‘resilient’, ‘dangerous’ or ‘vulnerable’ and those working with them as ‘omnipotent’ or ‘impotent’.‘Discerning complexity’ means appreciation that reality includes both polarised positions, and much more.Abed recognised how he and agencies he had encountered had co-constructed a ‘trauma narrative’, an oversimplified picture of himself as damaged and vulnerable. His trauma story had become his identity story, a ‘narrative passport’. In therapy he became aware of important events and experiences excluded from this story and of how he had been able to retain many previous strengths as well as developing new ones.The ‘Adversity Grid’ is outlined as a framework for grasping the wider consequences of exposureto adversity, and ‘synergic therapeutic complexity’ as aperspective that enables caregivers to connect their own strengths with those of their beneficiaries.