With the sharp increase of refugees’ arrival and resettlement in western communities, adequate mental health care forms a pivotal dimension in host societies’ responses to those individuals and communities. Clinical literature shows a growing interest in the development of family therapy approaches with refugees, in which therapeutic practice engages with the pivotal role of refugee family dynamics in post-trauma reconstruction and adaptation in resettlement and aims at supporting post-trauma reconstruction through strengthening capacities to restore safety, meaning, and connectedness within family relationships. In this chapter, we focus on trauma narration or the narrative restoration of meaning as central mode of posttrauma reparation, and we explore its specific dynamics and relational complexities in therapeutic practice with refugee families. We build on theoretical and clinical scholarly work on trauma narration to develop a phased approach of interventive modes in working with trauma narration in refugee care. A clinical case analysis illustrates the cyclic engagement with the phased approach.

This chapter explores the personal meanings and emotional effects of ruptured kinship ties, including challenges related to sustaining emotional bonds. By illustrating how the fragmentation of family communities continues in exile, the analysis adds to the growing awareness of daily stressors in receiving countries as challenging the well-being and agency of refugees. The analysis shows that forced separation is experienced in the context of relatedness created through social practices of family members beyond the nuclear family in home and transit countries. The emotional distress related to forced separation from kin are aggravated by ongoing war that is highly present in the everyday life of refugees. The impact and personal meaning of forced separation are also shaped by living conditions and possibilities for access to and participation in local communities. The analysis pinpoints the importance of exploring the variation of family practices and understandings in refugee populations in order to grasp the personal meaning of forced separation and support refugees in re-establishing their everyday life and coping with dramatically altered family configurations.

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.

The negative impact of pre- and post-migration adversity on mental health among refugee populations has been well documented, but a growing body of research indicates refugees’ resilience and family coping. Investigating resilience and coping among refugee families entails a close analysis of individual- and family-level protective factors, spousal dynamics, parenting styles, ethnocultural identification, and meaning-makings of pre- and post-migration experiences. The aim of the study reported in this chapter is to examine the migration narratives of eight West African refugee families (n = 16) in order to identify patterns of sociocultural and familial sources of resilience. Twenty-four qualitative interviews were analyzed. Findings indicate the role of cultural continuity, collectivism, religiosity, adaptive flexibility, and downward comparison as sociocultural protective factors and sources of resilience. Clinicians working with non-Western refugee populations should assess for sociocultural modes of coping and incorporate them into clinical and other psychosocial treatments and interventions.