Working with Refugee Families
Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships

This important new book explores how to support refugee family relationships in promoting post-trauma recovery and adaptation in exile.

Lucia De Haene (Edited by), Cécile Rousseau (Edited by)

9781108429030, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 August 2020

358 pages, 4 b/w illus. 3 tables
24 x 16.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.71 kg

'… 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

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Psychiatry [MMH], Medicolegal issues [MBQ], Public health & preventive medicine [MBN], Social work [JKSN]