In the aftermath of war and armed conflict, individuals and communities face the challenge of dealing with recollections of violence and atrocity. This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of processes of remembering and forgetting histories of violence in post-conflict communities and to reflect on related implications for trauma rehabilitation in post-conflict settings. Starting from the observation that memory operates at the core of PTSD symptomatology, we more closely explore how this notion of traumatic memory is conceptualized within PTSD-centered research and interventions. Subsequently, we aim to broaden this understanding of traumatic memory and post-trauma care by connecting to findings from social memory studies and transcultural trauma research. Drawing on an analysis of scholarly literature, this analysis develops into a perspective on memory that moves beyond a symptomatic framing toward an understanding of memory that emphasizes its relational, political, moral, and cultural nature. Post-conflict memory is presented as inextricably embedded in communal relations, involving ongoing trade-offs between individual and collective responses to trauma and a complex negotiation of speech and silence. In a concluding discussion, we develop implications of this broadened understanding for post-conflict trauma-focused rehabilitation.

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 seeking protection within their borders. Here, 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 posttrauma reconstruction and adaptation in resettlement and aims at supporting posttrauma reconstruction through strengthening capacities to restore safety, meaning and connectedness within family relationships. In this article, we focus on the narrative restoration of meaning as central mode of posttrauma reparation and explore its specific dynamics and relational complexities in the context of therapeutic practice with refugee families. Hereto, we integrate theoretical and clinical scholarly work on trauma narration and its intersection with empirical findings on trauma communication in refugee families. Furthermore, we develop case reflections to illustrate different processes of engaging with trauma narration in refugee family therapy. This analysis develops an understanding of the multivoiced ways in which refugee families engage with traumatic suffering through different modes of expression that may entail both narration and silence and explores how family therapeutic practices can engage and mobilize voices of narration and silence as relational stories of restoration.

In this article, we explore how narrative accounts of trauma are co-constructed through the interaction between researcher and participant. Using a narrative multiple-case study with Kurdish refugee families, we address how this process takes place, investigating how researcher and participants were engaged in relational, moral, collective, and sociopolitical dimensions of remembering, and how this led to the emergence of particular ethical questions. Case examples indicate that acknowledging the multilayered co-construction of remembering in the research relationship profoundly complicates existing deontological guidelines that predominantly emphasize the researcher's responsibility in sensitively dealing with participants' alleged autobiographical trauma narratives. Instead, our analysis invites qualitative researchers to engage in a continued, context-specific ethical reflection on the potential risks and benefits that are invoked in studies with survivors of collective violence.

Objective: An increasing body of literature emphasizes the role of refugees' social context, with social conditions both at home and in the host society having an impact on the possibility of power redistribution and the mobilization of agency in collaborative research practices. Our aim is to develop a contextualized understanding of research participation for refugees in collaborative research in order to further enhance insights on the potential strengths and pitfalls of collaborative refugee research. Method: We closely study the various relational contexts that shape refugees' research participation and that may have an influence on power dynamics in collaborative research. In the present study, we explore participants' adaptation of research participation by means of an interpretive cross-case analysis of three psychosocial intervention studies sharing a collaborative approach with refugee participants, refugee families, refugee communities, and professional partners at different stages in the research process. Results: We identify the developed collaborative strategies in our three case studies and provide an outline of the ways refugees mobilize research participation through these identified collaborative strategies, from within the relational contexts of the family, community, and institutional actors. Conclusions: This analysis shows how research participation operates as a relational forum in which refugees continuously navigate and negotiate within and between multiple relational contexts. We argue that performing research participation, as a way of relating to a relational context, is both an interactive and a dynamic process. For research practice, our analysis addresses the importance of an in-depth understanding of participants' relational contexts to foster both a reflective research practice and trustful research relationships between researchers and participants. Public Significance StatementResearch participation in collaborative refugee research operates as a relational forum in which refugees navigate within and relate to different relational contexts of the family, the community, and institutional actors. A contextualized understanding of research participation for refugees in collaborative research can enhance insights on the potential strengths and pitfalls of collaborative refugee research to redistribute power and mobilize agency in collaborative research practices.

While collective identifications of diasporic Kurds have attracted considerable scholarly interest, their possible role in familial processes of post-trauma reconstruction has hardly been studied. The aim of this article is therefore to develop an explorative understanding of the deployment and meaning of collective identifications in intimate family contexts by examining the interconnectedness between the transmission of cultural and political belonging and post-trauma meaning-making and coping in Kurdish refugee families. After contextualising diasporic Kurds’ collective identifications through an ethnographic depiction of the Kurdish diasporic community in Belgium, this article reports on findings from a small-scale, exploratory study with five Kurdish refugee families in Belgium. Thematic analysis of family and parent interviews indicates how cultural and political identifications may operate as sources of (1) dealing with cultural bereavement and loss; (2) commemorating trauma; and (3) reversing versus reiterating trauma. Overall, this study’s findings support an explorative understanding of collective identifications as meaningful resources in families’ post-trauma reconstruction.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIRola nasnameyên komelî di pêvajoyên malbatî yên vesazkirina paş-trawmayê de: Xebateke raveker li ser malbatên kurd ên penaber û civakên wan ên dîasporayêTevî ku nasnameyên komelî yên kurdên dîasporayê ta radeyeke baș bûye mijara lêkolînan, rola wan a muhtemel di pêvajoyên malbatî yên vesazkirina (selihandin) paş-trawmayê qet nehatine vekolîn. Lewma armanca vê gotarê ew e têgihiştineke raveker pêş bixe li ser rol û wateya nasnameyên komelî yên di çarçoveya mehremiya malbatê de, ku vê yekê jî dê bi rêya vekolîna wê têkiliya rijd bike ya di navbera neqlkirina aidiyetên çandî-siyasî û rêyên sazkirina wateyê û serederîkirina li dû trawmayê di nav malbatên kurd ên penaber de. Piştî diyarkirina çarçoveya nasnameya komelî ya Kurdên diasporayê bi rêya teswîreke etnografîk a cemaeta diasporaya Kurd li Belçîkayê, ev gotar encamên ji xebateke biçûk a bi pênc malbatên kurd ên penaber ên li Belçîkayê pêşkêş dike. Tehlîla babetî ya hevpeyvînên ligel malbatan û dayik û bavan nîşan dide ka çawa nasnameyên çandî û siyasî dikarin bibin çavkanî ji bo (1) serederîkirina bi mehrûmiyeta çandî û windahiyên xwe; (2) bibîranîna trawmayê; û (3) kêmrengkirin an, beramber vê yekê, dubarekirina trawmayê. Bi giştî, encamên vê xebatê wê têgihiştineke raveker tesdîq dikin ku nasnameyên kolektîf çavkaniyên kêrhatî ne di vesazkirina paş-trawmayê ya malbatan de. ABSTRACT IN SORANIDewrî nasname bekomellekan le prose binemalleyîyekanî sazkirdinewey paş-trawmayîda: lêkollîneweyekî şirovekarî binemalle penabere kurdekan û civatî ewan le diyasporaLe katêkda nasname bekomellekanî kurdekanî diyaspora le layen şarezakanewe giringîyekî berçawî pê drawe û serincî ewanî bo lay xoyî rakêşawe, bellam sebaret be egerî dewrî prose binemalleyîyekanî sazkirdinewey paş-tirawma be degmen lêkollîneweyek encam drawe. Ke wate, amancî em wutare perepêdan be têgeyîştinêkî şirovekarane lemerr bekarhênan û manay nasname bekomellekan le bestênekanî têkellawîy binemalleyîdaye, ke le rêgey peywendîy nêwan rewtî gwastineweyî grêdraweyî kultûrî û siyasî, sazbûnî mana û herweha rahatin legell kêşekanî qonaẍî paş tirawma le binemalle kurde penaberekanda taqî krawetewe. Dway awirrdanewe le civakî diyasporay kurd le Belcîka, nasname bekomellekanî kurdekanî diyaspora le bestênî xoyda xwêndinewey bo krawe û bem gêreye lem wutareda lêkollîneweyekî şirovekarane bo qebareyekî biçûk le pênc binemalley kurdî penaber le Belcîka dekrê û encamekanî billaw dekrêtewe. Şîkarîyekî babetiyaney wutuwêj legell binemalle û dayk û bawkekan nîşanî dedat ke çon dekrê nasname kultûrî û siyasîyekan wek serçaweyek bo em sê mijare derbikewn: (1) gîrodebûn be ledestçûn û bizirbûnî kultûr; (2) webîrhênanewey tirawma; û (3) pêçewanebûnî tirawma leberamber dûbarebûneweyda. Beşêweyekî giştî, encamekanî em lêkollîneweye piştgîrî le têgeyîştinêkî şirovekarane le nasname bekomellekan dekat ke wekû serçaweyekî giring bo sazkirdinewey binemallekan le dway qonaẍî paş-tirawma seyr dekrêt.