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Chapter 9 - Trauma Narration in Family Therapy with Refugees

Working between Silence and Story in Supporting a Meaningful Engagement with Family Trauma History

from Part II - Trauma Care for Refugee Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2020

By
Lucia De Haene ,
Peter Adriaenssens ,
Nele Deruddere  and
Peter Rober
Edited by
Lucia De Haene  and
Cécile Rousseau
Lucia De Haene
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium
Cécile Rousseau
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
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Summary

With the sharp increase of refugees’ arrival and resettlement in western communities, adequate mental health care forms a pivotal dimension in host societies’ responses to those individuals and communities. Clinical literature shows a growing interest in the development of family therapy approaches with refugees, in which therapeutic practice engages with the pivotal role of refugee family dynamics in post-trauma reconstruction and adaptation in resettlement and aims at supporting post-trauma reconstruction through strengthening capacities to restore safety, meaning, and connectedness within family relationships. In this chapter, we focus on trauma narration or the narrative restoration of meaning as central mode of posttrauma reparation, and we explore its specific dynamics and relational complexities in therapeutic practice with refugee families. We build on theoretical and clinical scholarly work on trauma narration to develop a phased approach of interventive modes in working with trauma narration in refugee care. A clinical case analysis illustrates the cyclic engagement with the phased approach.

Keywords

trauma narrationrefugee familiessilencetrauma communicationposttrauma reconstruction
Type
Chapter
Information
Working with Refugee Families
Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships
 , pp. 148 - 171
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

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