Psychotherapy with Immigrants and Refugees from Crisis Zones

Working with PTSD in the Asylum Procedure

“…Such criticisms perceive the diagnosis provided by the professionals to be less based on objective medical "expert" information and more on "therapeutic" clinical intuition (Dromer & Grandmaison;Hauswirth, Canellini, & Bennoun, 2004;Lechenne, 2012;Maier, 2006;Montagut, 2016). Such criticisms may pose a dilemma for the professionals themselves, who are often faced with their own doubts regarding the diagnosis and their attempts to be as objective as possible (Joksimovic, Schröder, & van Keuk, 2015;Maier, 2006). They may in fact be seen as agents of de-culturalisation and de-politicisation in that they transfigure the refugees' accounts of atrocities into individualised pathology-a process refugees themselves may not be averse to as it may be the only avenue available to secure wider legal and welfare benefits.…”