The Impact of the “Troubles” on Therapy Groups in Northern Ireland

Since September 11, 2001, terrorism has become familiar to us. The word itself rolls readily off our lips and we wonder about, and struggle with, the lasting consequences of that late summer day. In this paper we speak about thirty-four years of civil strife and terrorism in Northern Ireland. We examine the traumatic impact of that chronic strife on the therapy groups in Northern Ireland. Specifically we examine its impact on therapy groups-as-a-whole, on therapy group members and their interactions with each other, and on the group therapists who lead those groups. A brief review of the history of the strife and its impact on the citizenry precedes these central discussions. We conclude with suggestions about how we may use specially designed groups to enable therapists to address those effects in their groups. Some of these suggestions are already underway.     

Cultural factors promoting coping among Tibetan refugees: a qualitative investigation

This study is an attempt to understand the role of cultural resources in promoting coping among Tibetan refugees. Tibetan refugee communities have adapted well and managed to preserve their cultural identity in exile and have been cited as models of successful coping with refugee life. Tibet is renowned for its rich culture and traditions. The unique feature of this culture is the devotion towards Buddhism which has exerted a strong influence in almost every aspect of their life and culture. This study is a qualitative investigation of 12 Tibetan refugees coming from diverse background (students, businessmen, activists, and ex-prisoners). Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the narratives of case studies in order to explore various cultural factors promoting healthy coping. Major themes related to the cultural resources promoting healthy coping included – protective hand of Dalai Lama and other Lamas, Buddhist philosophy and practices, community bonding and support, and historical exemplars of strength and resiliency.     

“Giving Back to Society What Society Gave Us”: Altruism,Coping, and Meaning Making by Two Refugee Communities in South Australia

We aimed to explore how refugee people utilised their coping resources and strategies to find meaning in their past and present experiences. Using an experience‐centred narrative approach, we analysed the stories of 24 former refugees from two African countries resettled in South Australia. Data analysis revealed altruism and helping behaviour as a prominent and recurring theme of participants' narrated lives. This meta‐theme encompassed four subthemes: (a) surviving war and exile, (b) adapting to Australian society, (c) reaching back home, and (d) meaning making through religious beliefs. Helping, cooperating, and sharing were entwined with participants' coping strategies and meaning making of experience. Participants' socio‐historical, cultural, and religious context influenced the interpretations of their experiences. Taken together, our findings identified a counter narrative in refugee mental health research beyond trauma and psychopathology. Specifically, we have shown that when the refugee experience is also accompanied by situational contingencies such as receiving help and being called upon to help, together with evaluations such as empathy, identification with suffering, and gratitude, people can be motivated to help others. Future research is needed to explore how altruism and helping behaviour can promote healing from trauma, alleviate distress of separation, and ameliorate acculturation stress among diverse refugee populations.     

Contributions of Loss Events to Loss Distress and Trauma Symptoms in Recently Resettled Refugee Women at Risk

This research examined contributions of loss events to loss distress and trauma symptoms (accounting for trauma events) for refugee women at risk. Participants (N?=?104) responded to the Multidimensional Loss Scale (loss events and distress) and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (trauma events and symptoms). Loss events contributed uniquely to loss distress (explaining additional 50.8% variance), and made a unique contribution to trauma symptoms (explaining additional 5.2% variance) approximately equal to trauma events. Appropriate response to psychic distress in refugee women at risk requires assessment of both loss and trauma and consideration of cultural differences in ways loss is expressed and meaning ascribed to symptoms.     

Cultural Identity and Groups of Belonging

Research into the cultural foundations of psychic structure must take place simultaneously at the individual, group, and psychosocial level of analysis. Identity, as both an individual and a collective phenomenon, and the primacy of the group dimension become manifest in the imaginary space created by groups, in Bion's protomental system. Cultural incorporates function like somatic processes and establish the synchrony of all cultural interactions. Individuation would thus emerge from the shared common base, which in turn is related to the individual's internalization of his group of belonging. A distinction is drawn between primary groups of belonging, which are extensions of family structure and supply the group's cultural identity, and secondary belonging groups, which are instituted by the society. The relationship between transcultural experiences, aiming at achieving unity, and intercultural experiences, which recognize limits and differences, is a source of tension for the individual and the group. Examples are given of the function of excitation screens within instituted groups and of the cultural dimension of the analytic setting.     

Scharffs' Application of Hopper's Concept: “Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification”

We begin by stating our understanding of the concepts presented in Hopper's paper, then comment on the clinical illustration, and conclude by describing two group situations in which we have applied the concepts we have taken from Hopper's paper. Hopper's fourth basic assumption applies to our work as individual psychoanalysts, family therapists, and group leaders because it integrates psychoanalytic and social understanding. We demonstrate how and why we find Hopper's idea to be a useful advance.     

Going Beyond Certain Limits Together: How Ferenczi's Notion of Elasticity Informs Group Treatment of Traumatized Patients

This paper explores Ferenczi's elasticity techniques, ideas about mutuality, and analyst self-disclosure. It describes the application of Ferenczi's theory of working with traumatized patients to a group comprised of six patients. By exploring Ferenczi's techniques in working with his patients individually, the author hopes to guide clinicians in applying and recognizing the special value of Ferenczi's theory in a group setting. The author's emphasis on promoting an atmosphere of tenderness in the group led members to reveal their experiences of trauma after they had developed sufficient feelings of safety and freedom in the group.     

‘If that's what I need,it could be what someone else needs.’ Exploring the role of attachment and reflective function in counselling psychologists' accounts of how they use personal therapy in clinical practice: a mixed methods study

Empirical evidence supporting the inclusion of mandatory training therapy for therapists is sparse. We present results from a mixed methods study designed to interrogate how counselling psychologists' attachment status and levels of reflective function (RF) intersect with how they experience, recall and describe using personal therapy in clinical practice. Results suggest that securely-attached, or earned secure participants with ordinary or marked levels of RF used their therapy to manage feelings evoked by difficult or challenging clients. Insecurely-attached participants with lower levels of RF found therapy valuable in terms of behavioural modelling, but not in managing complex process issues. Negative case analysis found that high levels of RF may not be uniformly advantageous for therapists. The study concludes with a brief discussion of issues relating to epistemology, validity and reflexivity.