About the Book
Mental health problems among asylum seekers and refugees are becoming a public issue, but awareness of this problem among the mental health community is relatively low. Although advances have been made in the provision of innovative mental health services for asylum seekers and refuges with PTSD, they are not systemized, and not widely known to professionals in the field. A publication offering practical guidelines for the treatment of torture victims and political refugees does not exist. Broken Spirits aims to bring together the works of the most respected mental health professionals - from the U.S. and abroad - and make available the most current knowledge on complex PTSD, forced migration and cultural sensitivity in diagnosis and treatment.
Table of Contents:
Foreword. About the Editors. Contributors. Acknowledgements. Preface. Part I: Theoretical, Conceptual and Socio-cultural Considerations. Wilson, Introduction. Volkan, From Hope for a Better Life to Broken Spirits: An Introduction. Silove, The Global Challenge of Asylum. Modvig, Jaranson, A Global Perspective of Torture, Political Violence and Health. Aroche, Coello, Ethnocultural Considerations in the Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers. McFarlane, Assessing PTSD and Co-morbidity: Issues in Differential Diagnosis. Part II: Broken Spirits: Traumatic Injury to Culture, the Self and Personality. Wilson, Introduction. Wilson, The Broken Spirit: Posttaumatic Damage to the Self . de Jong, Public Mental Health and Culture: Disasters as a Challenge to Western Mental Health Care Models, the Self and PTSD. Part III: Post-traumatic Treatments: Guidelines for Practitioners. Wilson, Introduction. van der Veer, van Waning, Creating a Safe Therapeutic Sanctuary. Turkovic, Hovens, Gregurek, Strengthening Psychological Health in War Victims and Refugees. Drodzek, Wilson, Uncovering: Trauma Focused Treatment Techniques with Asylum Seekers. Wilson, Empathy, Trauma Transmission and Counter-transference in Posttraumatic Psychotherapy. Lansen, Haans, Clinical Supervision for Trauma Therapists. Bot, Wadensjo, The Presence of a Third Party: A Dialogical View on Interpreter-assisted Treatment. Part IV: Non-verbal and Experiential Therapies. Wilson, Introduction to Part IV. de Winter, Drodzek, Psychomotor Therapy: Healing by Action. Karcher, Body Psychotherapy with Survivors of Torture. Wertheim-Cahen, van Dijk, Schouten, Roozen, Drodzek, About a Weeping Willow, a Phoenix Rising from its Ashes and Building a House... Art Therapy with Refugees: Three Different Perspectives. Orth, Doorschodt, Verburgt, Drodzek, Sounds of Trauma. Part V: Treatment of Special Populations: Gender and Developmental Considerations. Wilson, Introduction to Part V. Walter, Bala, Where Meanings, Sorrow and Hope have a Resident Permit: Treatment of Families and Children. Adam, van Essen, In Between - Adolescent Refugees in Exile. Kastrup, Arcel, Gender Specific Treatment. Part VI: Medical, Surgical and Clinical Issues in the Treatment of Refugees and Torture Victims. Wilson, Introduction to Part VI. Kinzie, Friedman, Psychopharmacology for Refugee and Asylum Seeker Patients. Juhler, Surgical Approach to Victims of Torture and PTSD. Ekblad, Jaranson, Psychosocial Rehabilitation. Part VII: Legal, Moral and Political Issues in the Treatment Process. Wilson, Introduction to Part VII. Herlihy, Ferstman, Turner, Legal Issues in Work with Asylum Seekers. Steele, Mares, Newman, Blick, Dudley, The Politics of Asylum and Immigration Detention: Advocacy, Ethics and the Professional Role of the Therapist.
Review :
"Make no mistake, this is a powerful book. If you work in this area, or aspire to, it will give you tools and models and a great deal of insight and understanding. It will challenge you as well. Yet in the work with the trauma victim who has survived horrors of a kind that are so outside of our 'normality', it is perhaps our sense of humanity that is our most powerful tool. It is from this that the spirit within us reaches out to the spirit within the other and some form of psychological restoration of the spirit becomes possible." - Richard Bryant-Jefferies, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, UK "This volume represents an important contribution to this expanding and is anticipated to have a high impact on both policy and future research. The volume is an excellent handbook for all those who are interested in the treatment of traumatized asylum seekers, refugees, war, and torture victims, including the educated general reader or policymaker with an interest in contemporary work on trauma. Libraries will want to add this to their collections, and one supects the book entice readers from diverse fields, including psychology, anthropolgy, sociology, human development, social work, nursing, and psychiatry. It offers a starting point for the novice as well as a contemporary literature review of this expanding field for the specialist, the current volume ought to remain an important contribution for some time." - Grant J. Rich, APA, PsycCRITIQUES "As Volkan writes in his introduction, the topic is both timeless and timely...Professionals interested in or involved with mental health care for asylum seekers and refugees can find new insights and inspirations in many of the chapters..." - Loes H. M. van Willigen, Journal of Refugee Studies "John Wilson and Boris Drozdek bring an important collection of articles to the reader of trauma literature and to therapists who have the potential of seeing specific forms of trauma reflecting the cruelty witnessed in this volume...it will be one of the more interesting volumes that you will likely read in a while." - Tom Schumacher, in The Repetition & Avoidance Quarterly "...This book is especially valuable to those who work in the field of care and assistance for refugees. A few chapters are extremely valuable for those who work with populations in affected regions and countries. However, the other chapters contain important insights in the condition of refugees, cultural peculiarities and treatments that can be adapted and tested in those areas where the vast majority of displaced people and refugees seek shelter. The book presents the reader the actual state of the art in both theory and practice of care for refugees and other victims of trauma. In addition, it invites for further study and thought, and the development of proper and effective therapeutic or community interventions. It is worth a thorough read." - Petra Aarts, Intervention: International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work, and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict "We have in this volume a significant and comprehensive text on a theme that has become what is in effect a new discipline within therapeutic provision. Broken Spirits will provide you with theoretical as well as practical insight into the effects of traumatic experience on the person, and methods of response to help restore them to stronger psychological functioning. Make no mistake, this is a powerful book. If you work in this area, it will give you tools and models and a great deal of insight and understanding. It will challenge you as well." - Richard Bryant-Jefferies, Head of Equalities and Diversity, CNWL NHS Foundation Trust, and author of Counseling Victims of Warfare
