Practitioners’ perspectives on the use of clinical supervision in their therapeutic engagement with asylum seekers and refugee clients

The present study is the first study undertaken in Australia that seeks to explore practitioners’ perspectives on the use of clinical supervision in their therapeutic engagement with asylum seekers and refugees. We used thematic analysis to analyse extracts of interviews that were conducted with nine professionals who worked therapeutically with asylum seekers and refugees and had experience of participating in individual and peer supervision. The findings of the study suggest that supervision encouraged practitioners to develop multicultural awareness and explore therapeutic ways of working that are compatible with their clients’ frame. In addition, supervision provided the context in which practitioners explored the impact of the asylum legislative framework on their clinical work and reflected upon their feelings of powerlessness and political impotence. Implications for practice that derive from supervisory needs of practitioners who work with asylum seekers and refugees are explored.     

Building seven bridges with young asylum seekers living in exile in the UK (Part 1)

This first paper focuses on the key themes that emerge in work with young asylum seekers and refugees and on our assessment of the needs of individual young asylum seekers, alongside the ways in which we meet the needs of these young people given the holistic, integrated and developmental approach of the Baobab Centre. The fact that psychotherapeutic methods are useful in this context and the need to have flexible approach to psychotherapy in our context are two ideas explored here. This paper will explore how we can slowly build sturdy and protective connections during and after the developmental years following experiences of sequential violence. This means building bridges and links within the internal worlds of these young people between: (1) different aspects of themselves that emerge after violence and loss; (2) themselves and their peers; (3) listening adults; (4) various social influences; (5) cultural influences; (6) their past, present and future lives; (7) links with local, national and international communities all of which are addressed via a ‘Transitional Non-Residential Therapeutic Community’. A case example will illustrate how this work may take place.     

Building seven bridges with young asylum seekers living in exile in the UK (Part 2)

This paper is derived from a talk given in November 2016 as the Birkbeck Counselling Association Autumn Talk in collaboration with Psychodynamic Practice. The original talk has been divided into two related papers of which this is the second, concentrating on the effects on young asylum seekers of the political and social situation in which they find themselves when they reach the UK. Both papers explore how, working with young asylum seekers, we can slowly build sturdy and protective connections during and after the developmental years following experiences of sequential violence. This means building links within the internal worlds of these young people between themselves and: (i) different aspects of themselves that emerge after violence and loss; (ii) their peers; (iii) listening adults; (iv) various social influences; (v) cultural influences; (vi) their past, present and future lives; (vii) links with local, national and international communities. Describing further the work that takes place at the Baobab Centre, a ‘transitional therapeutic community’, and using case material to illustrate this, the author raises the challenge of how we might best address the needs of this group of children, adolescents and young adults who objectively have to live for several years of their lives in a situation of ongoing uncertainty that is in fact much more than a young person can bear. As Jo Goldstein a legal specialist, Anna Freud a child psychoanalyst and Al Solnit a paediatrician write, in their trilogy of works, States and State Agencies cannot parent children, and children need involved parenting, (i.e. involved relationships with individual caring adults). Often for children separated from their original families, the parenting role is split between large bureaucracies and foster carers who work with agencies outsourced from the Social Services Departments. Yet this country makes Social Services Departments and the Home Office responsible for decisions about whether or not child asylum seekers might remain in the UK, in fact often without a very deep assessment and hence little knowledge and understanding of their experiences and their developmental needs. Asylum seeking minors usually have to wait for decisions about their safety and protection, and about permanence and continuity, for a much longer period of time than a child can bear.     

The role of social support in the acculturation and mental health of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers

There is a lack of knowledge about psychosocial resources that may sustain post‐resettlement psychological adjustment among unaccompanied minor asylum‐seekers. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of social support from family abroad and friends on acculturation, discrimination, and mental health among these vulnerable children and youth. Questionnaire data were collected from a population‐based multi‐ethnic sample involving 895 unaccompanied minors resettled in municipalities in all regions of the country. They met in groups in their local communities. The informants were on average 18.6 years, and had an average length of stay in Norway of 3.5 years. The findings showed that the participants suffered from high levels of ongoing war related intrusive symptoms and depression. Still, at the same time they engaged in adaptation processes that are normative to youth with immigrant backgrounds, in terms of constructing supportive networks and developing culture competence. In accordance with the main effect hypothesis, social support had direct effects on depression and indirect effects by increasing culture competence that may aid the young refugees in dealing with discrimination. However, there were no effects of social support on symptoms of PTSD. The findings give direction to areas of interventions, beyond dealing with the sequel of the traumas the unaccompanied minors have been exposed to, not only for clinicians, but also social workers and school personnel.     

‘I Can't Go Back Because If I Go Back I Would Die’: How Asylum Seekers Manage Talk about Returning Home by Highlighting the Importance of Safety

Asylum seekers living in the UK have been shown to have fled danger in their countries of origin, only to face hardship and the threat of deportation once there. This paper draws on the discursive psychological approach to address the way in which asylum seekers in the UK manage questions about returning to their country of origin. Interviews were conducted with nine asylum seekers in a refugee support centre in the Midlands. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis showed that participants drew on the notion of safety to counter suggestions that they should return to their country of origin and to manage their identity as legitimate asylum seekers in need of support. The use of this strategy and the use of interviews for discursive analysis are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The notion of professional identity among practitioners working with asylum seekers. A discursive analysis of practitioners’ experience of clinical supervision and working context in work with asylum seekers

The present study analyses interviews that were conducted with eight professionals who have provided therapeutic work to asylum seekers. It explores practitioners’ perspective on the impact of clinical supervision on their work as well as the impact of their working organisational context on the way they experience their professional identity. The findings of the study suggest that the experience of working with this population produces a notion of professional identity that offers a more politicised engagement with clinical work. This politicised notion of professional identity is reflected in the practitioners’ perspective on the use of clinical supervision as well as in the manner in which they position themselves within their organisational context.     

Regulatory focus and attitudes to migrants

In two studies we examined the role of two regulatory foci (i.e., prevention and promotion) in predicting Australian's attitudes to different types of migrants. According to regulatory focus theory, promotion-focused self-regulation is concerned with nurturance and accomplishment needs and involves the pursuit of wishes and aspirations. As such, it results in sensitivity to positive outcomes and to relative pleasure from gains. On the other hand, prevention-focused self-regulation is concerned with security needs and is directed at meeting duties and obligations. As such, it results in sensitivity to negative outcome and relative pain from losses. In Study 1, as predicted, the extent of promotion focus (i.e., a concern with accomplishment and the pursuit of ideals) predicted more positive attitudes to culturally similar and economically beneficial migrants, whereas the extent of prevention focus (i.e., concern with security and meeting obligations) predicted more negative attitudes to migrants who are culturally dissimilar. In Study 2 we replicated and extended these findings, showing that the extent of promotion focus and a lack of concern with threats predicted positive attitudes to both culturally similar and economically beneficial migrants, which, in the case of the latter group, was mediated by a focus on the benefits these migrants provide. In the case of culturally dissimilar migrants, the extent of promotion focus and a concern with gains predicted more positive attitudes. However, for economically less beneficial migrants, neither the extent of promotion nor prevention focus was a predictor. Only lower concerns with threat predicted more positive attitudes to this migrant group. The results are discussed with respect to other determinants of attitudes to migrants and the implications for migration and asylum-seeker policy.     

Considering boundaries when doing therapeutic work with people who are seeking asylum: a reflective case study

People who are seeking asylum often have lived experience of their personal boundaries and human rights being violated. For this reason, it is especially important that we consider the impact of boundaries in therapeutic work with this population. This paper explores work with a woman with a severe trauma history who was seeking asylum in England. Examples of perceived boundary crossings in the therapeutic relationship are examined. Considerations for other clinicians working with asylum seekers are discussed. These include: addressing socio-political factors; being sensitive to cultural differences; the importance of supervision and reflective practice; the personal impact of such work; and using critical thinking and warmth to manage boundaries rather than rigidly following rules.     

Interviewing asylum seekers: A vignette study on the questions asked to assess credibility of claims about origin and persecution

The aim of the current vignette study is to map the style, type, and themes of questions that are asked when assessing the credibility of asylum seekers' claims. Sixty‐five officials from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket ), were asked to respond to one out of four different vignettes that contained fictitious asylum narratives. Each vignette presented the types of problems often encountered by officials at the migration board. Two of the vignettes contained no evidence of the origin of the asylum seeker. The other two contained no evidence for the claim of persecution. The asylum officials were asked to formulate five questions that would help them to assess the veracity of the applicant's claim. Our analyses showed that they mainly formulated open questions in an information gathering style. A thematic analysis of the questions revealed that when a claim about origin was assessed, asylum officials mostly asked questions about life in the country of origin, identity documents, and the flight to Europe. When the claim about persecution was assessed, in contrast, asylum officials mostly formulated case‐specific questions (e.g., how the applicant was arrested). Hence, when the credibility of claims about origin is assessed, there seems to be a typical set of questions that asylum officials use. The asylum officials seem to assume that if the applicant is truly originating from a specific country or area, he or she should have ample knowledge about that area, its customs, and frequently encountered objects.