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Chapter 10 - Exile and Belonging

Negotiating Identity, Acculturation and Trauma in Refugee Families

from Part II - Trauma Care for Refugee Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2020

By
Jaswant Guzder
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

Since refugee and forced migration experiences are marked by experiences of displacement, exile and resettlement, family therapy with child or youth patients from these families often encompasses complex dynamics and contexts. Each family member may present unique intra-generational, developmental, systemic experiences and individual narratives while the family adapts and copes within collective, familial and individual acculturation realities. By engaging with cultural hybridization and dynamics of identity, family therapists’ interventions often address resilience promotion as well as child protection issues. In addition, since advocacy and institutional collaboration remain common frameworks of care, therapeutic spaces would benefit from using cultural safety and cultural axis parameters in shaping intervention strategies with the refugee family. Engagement of these refugees and displaced migrant families is supported by considering multiple perspectives within each family and also within the therapists themselves or the teams who are involved in clinical mandates. This chapter uses case vignettes to illustrate some family cases.

Keywords

refugee familiestraumacultural safetyadvocacyresilience promotioncultural formulationprotection
Type
Chapter
Information
Working with Refugee Families
Trauma and Exile in Family Relationships
 , pp. 172 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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