The role of collective identifications in family processes of post-trauma reconstruction: An exploratory study with Kurdish refugee families and their diasporic community

Kevers, Ruth; Rober, Peter; Haene, Lucia De

doi:10.33182/ks.v5i2.440

Cited by 37 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The reflections developed in this article are drawn from Kevers’s (2017) doctoral study in which Kurdish refugee families’ memory practices were explored, with a focus upon the meaning of silence and disclosure in their familial communication on lived experiences of collective violence and persecution. Within refugee health research on the impact of traumatization, trauma communication is increasingly recognized as an important relational dynamic shaping transgenerational trauma transmission and refugee children’s psychosocial adjustment in the aftermath of collective violence and exile (Dalgaard, Todd, Daniel, & Montgomery, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we connect to existing scholarship on trauma communication in refugee families, in which patterns of open communication, silencing, and modulated disclosure are distinguished (Dalgaard & Montgomery, 2015; Dalgaard et al, 2016; Measham & Rousseau, 2010). Contributing to knowledge of modulated disclosure patterns, our doctoral study documented how refugee parents and children modulate the transmission of personal and collective memories, of past and present violence, and of verbal and materialized remembrance (Kevers, 2017). In the present article, case reflections will address how these memory practices develop in the relationship between family members and the researcher.…”

Section: Ethical Reflections On the Multilayered Dimensions Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

2017

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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.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethical Reflections On the Multilayered Dimensions Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

2017

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“…Furthermore, silence on traumatic family histories may be lived as vehicle of mobilizing meaningful future perspectives. Here, refugee parents share a pattern of silence as a way to transmit their hopes for creating prosperous future perspectives in the host society, their emphasis on transgenerational cultural continuity, or their profound wish to resist the reiteration of collective violence in their children’s later lives (Kevers, Rober, & De Haene, 2017). As another pattern of trauma communication in refugee families, studies have documented the process of modulated disclosure, indicating how family members create a partial transmission of trauma narratives (Measham & Rousseau, 2010; Lin, Suyemoto, & Kiang, 2009).…”

Section: Trauma Narration In Refugee Family Therapy: Towards Engagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of trauma in family therapy with refugees: Supporting safe relational spaces of narration and silence

Haene

Rousseau

Kevers

et al. 2018

Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry

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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.

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“…War and other forms of collective violence can threaten individual and community assumptions of safety, predictability, and control, disintegrate the fabric of society, and lead to the mass displacement of civilians from their communities and countries in search of safety [1,2]. In post-migration settings, refugees attempt to create narratives that allow them to make sense of the past as they adjust to life and negotiate places of safety and growth, both within their own exiled communities and in their new host communities [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma

Matos

Costa

Park

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The centrality of the collective to Syrian identity and the ability of war to disrupt community ties have led to significant violations of Syrians’ pre-war assumptions about themselves, the world, and their place in the world. Guided by the integrated meaning-making model, this qualitative cross-sectional study assessed Syrian refugees’ meaning trajectories through their reappraisals of the war, attempts to repair community-informed shattered meanings, and those processes’ outputs (i.e., meanings-made) and outcomes (i.e., perceived psychological adjustment). We conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews with 39 Syrian war-exposed adults living in urban communities across Portugal, most of whom were beneficiaries of higher education programs for refugees. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results suggest that the war severely disrupted Syrians’ sense of collective self, and that they repeatedly engaged in search for meaning, appraisals of the war, and reappraisals of shattered beliefs, life goals, and sense of purpose, both during wartime and in resettlement. In Portugal, despite persistent negative beliefs about the collective and ongoing and distressing searches for meaning, participants’ lived experiences concomitantly informed positive meaning reappraisals, including progressive restoration of worldviews, new opportunities for self-realization, and newly-found purpose, leading to perceived psychological benefits and growth. These findings suggest that meaning-making is both a trajectory and a dynamic process, informed by place and sociopolitical context. Clinical work to facilitate adaptive meaning-making and meaning-informed psychosocial interventions that help restore refugees’ shattered beliefs about safety, predictability, trust, and belonging, may be helpful directions to promote positive psychological adjustment and improve long-term integration prospects in refugees.

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The role of collective identifications in family processes of post-trauma reconstruction: An exploratory study with Kurdish refugee families and their diasporic community

Cited by 37 publications

References 0 publications

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

Unraveling the Mobilization of Memory in Research With Refugees

Stories of trauma in family therapy with refugees: Supporting safe relational spaces of narration and silence

‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma

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