Working with Refugee Families: Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships

The field of refugee family research and intervention forms a growing field of scientific study, focussing on the refugee family as the central niche of coping with, and giving meaning to, trauma, cultural uprooting, and exile. This important new book develops an understanding of the role of refugee family relationships in post-trauma healing and provides an in-depth analysis of central clinical-therapeutic themes in refugee family psychosocial interventions. Expert contributions from across transcultural psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and social work have provided chapters on post-trauma reconstruction in refugee family relationships, trauma care for refugee families, and intersectorial psychosocial interventions with refugee families. This exploration of refugee family systems in both research and clinical practice aims to promote a systemic perspective in health and social services working with families in refugee mental health care.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. Working with refugee families Lucia De Haene and Cécile Rousseau; Part I. Refugee Family Relationships: Coping with Trauma and Exile: 1. The role of family functioning in refugee child and adult mental health Matthew Hodes and Nasima Hussain; 2. Transgenerational trauma transmission in refugee families: the role of traumatic suffering, attachment representations, and parental caregiving Nina Dalgaard, Marie Høgh Thøgersen and Karin Riber; 3. Pre- and post-migration trauma and adversity: sources of resilience and family coping among West African refugee families Aïcha Cissé, Lucia De Haene, Eva Keatley and Andrew Rasmussen; 4. Cultural belonging and political mobilization in refugee families: an exploration of the role of collective identifications in post-trauma reconstruction within family relationships Ruth Kevers and Peter Rober; 5. Forced separation, ruptured kinship and transnational family Ditte Shapiro and Edith Montgomery; 6. Family relationships and intra-family expectations in unaccompanied young refugees Ilse Derluyn and Winny Ang; Part II. Trauma Care For Refugee Families: 7. Mobilizing resources in multifamily groups Trudy Mooren and Julia Bala; 8. Working through trauma and restoring security in refugee parent-child relationships Mayssa El Husseini, Elisabetta Dozio, Malika Mansouri, Marion Feldman and Marie Rose Moro; 9. Trauma narration in family therapy with refugees: working between silence and story in supporting a meaningful engagement with family trauma history Lucia De Haene, Peter Adriaenssens, Nele Deruddere and Peter Rober; 10. Exile and belonging: negotiating identity, acculturation and trauma in refugee families Jaswant Guzder; 11. Working with spirituality in refugee care: ACT-Buddhism group for Cambodian Canadian refugees Kenneth Fung, Mony Mok and Vireak Phorn; 12. Collaborating with refugee families on dynamics of intra-family violence Kjerstin Almqvist; 13. Supporting refugee family reunification in exile Nora Sveaass and Sissel Reichelt; 14. Diagnosis as advocacy: medico-legal reports in refugee family care Debra Stein, Priyadarshani Raju and Lisa Andermann; 15. Reflexivity in the every-day lives and work of refugees and therapists Rukiya Jemmott and Inga-Britt Krause; Part III. Intersectoral Psychosocial Interventions in Working with Refugee Families: 16. Rebuilding trust and connectedness in exile: the role of health and social institutions Radhika Santhanam-Martin; 17. Family-school relationships in supporting refugee children's school trajectories Mina Fazel and Aoife O'Higgins; 18. Collaborative mental health care for refugee families in school context Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, Caterina Mamprin, Alyssa Turpin-Samson and Vanessa Lemire; 19. Interrogating legality and legitimacy in the post migratory context: working around traumatic repetition and re-enactment with refugee families Cécile Rousseau; Conclusion. Amplifying our engagement with refugee families beyond the therapeutic space Cécile Rousseau and Lucia De Haene.

About the Author :
Lucia De Haene obtained her Ph.D. in Educational Sciences in 2009 at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) with a dissertation on refugee parent-child relationships. She is Assistant Professor affiliated to the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (KU Leuven), and Associate Professor (tenured) from 2018 onwards. She is involved in research on the psychosocial impact of forced migration in refugee family relationships and clinical research on transcultural trauma care with refugee families. Lucia coordinates a family and community therapeutic service in refugee trauma care at the Faculty's Clinical Centre PraxisP. She is licensed family therapist (Postgraduate Degree in Family Therapy Studies, KU Leuven), involved in training family therapy and coordinator of the Postgraduate Program Psychotraumatherapy (KU Leuven). Cécile Rousseau is professor of psychiatry at McGill University and Scientific Director of the Research Institute on Health and Cultural Diversity SHERPA. She coordinates an academic mental health care centre (CLSC Parc Extension), where she leads and supervises a clinical team in working with immigrant and refugee families in close collaboration with primary care settings. She has worked extensively with immigrant and refugee communities, developing specific school based interventions and leading policy-oriented research. Presently, her research focuses on the evaluation of collaborative mental health care models for youth in multiethnic neighborhoods and intervention and prevention programs to address youth radicalization.

Review :
'… a very comprehensive and fascinating book … This book is of value to anyone interested in understanding the traumas of the refugee experience and different methods of coping. It is especially useful for counsellors wishing to help refugees cope with their traumas, and particularly how an understanding of the support from family and cultural ties can help. It will be relevant mainly to psychologists, psychiatrists and social care workers who contribute to the welfare of refugees.' Shirley Hodgson, Medicine, Conflict and Survival