Book contents
- Working with Refugee Families
- Working with Refugee Families
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Refugee Family Relationships
- Part II Trauma Care for Refugee Families
- Chapter 7 Mobilizing Resources in Multifamily Groups
- Chapter 8 Working through Trauma and Restoring Security in Refugee Parent-Child Relationships
- Chapter 9 Trauma Narration in Family Therapy with Refugees
- Chapter 10 Exile and Belonging
- Chapter 11 Working with Spirituality in Refugee Care
- Chapter 12 Collaborating with Refugee Families on Dynamics of Intra-family Violence
- Chapter 13 Supporting Refugee Family Reunification in Exile
- Chapter 14 Diagnosis as Advocacy
- Chapter 15 Reflexivity in the Everyday Lives and Work of Refugees and Therapists
- Part III Intersectoral Psychosocial Interventions in Working with Refugee Families
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Chapter 15 - Reflexivity in the Everyday Lives and Work of Refugees and Therapists
from Part II - Trauma Care for Refugee Families
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2020
Book contents
- Working with Refugee Families
- Working with Refugee Families
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Refugee Family Relationships
- Part II Trauma Care for Refugee Families
- Chapter 7 Mobilizing Resources in Multifamily Groups
- Chapter 8 Working through Trauma and Restoring Security in Refugee Parent-Child Relationships
- Chapter 9 Trauma Narration in Family Therapy with Refugees
- Chapter 10 Exile and Belonging
- Chapter 11 Working with Spirituality in Refugee Care
- Chapter 12 Collaborating with Refugee Families on Dynamics of Intra-family Violence
- Chapter 13 Supporting Refugee Family Reunification in Exile
- Chapter 14 Diagnosis as Advocacy
- Chapter 15 Reflexivity in the Everyday Lives and Work of Refugees and Therapists
- Part III Intersectoral Psychosocial Interventions in Working with Refugee Families
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter we (two systemic psychotherapists) write about our work with refugees and asylum seekers in which we aim to help rekindle trust and find a way of living on in a social world often without political protection. This context poses particular challenges to therapists, because for refugees and asylum seekers ordinary everyday events point to extraordinary ruptures and violations in the past. Drawing on the idea of Veena Das of ‘the everyday work of repair’ and on her use of Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘turning back’, we argue that these ideas are useful in understanding how violent ruptures, betrayal, displacement and loss may be revisited so that persons can go on living with these experiences, not in the past but in the present, without erasing the past and at the same time keeping the potentiality of the future. Using examples, we show how we enter this territory through the use of our understanding of what we call ‘the human condition’ and our own reflexivity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Working with Refugee FamiliesTrauma and Exile in Family Relationships, pp. 249 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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