Therapeutic Care for Refugees: No Place Like Home by Renos K. Papadopoulos (University of Essex, UK, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Tavistock Clinic, UK)
This volume addresses the complexities involved in attending to the mental health of refugees. It covers theory and research as well as clinical and field applications, emphasising the psychotherapeutic perspective. It explores the delicate balance between accepting the resilience of refugees whilst not neglecting their psychological needs, within a framework that avoids pathologising their condition. Moreover, it deals with the difficulties in delineating the various relevant intersecting perspectives to the refugee reality, e.g. psychological, socio-political, legal, organisational and ethical. The book introduces important considerations about the actual psychotherapy with refugees (in individual, family and group settings) but in addition, it encourages the introduction of therapeutic elements to all types of work with refugees. Thus, it argues for the necessity of approaching every facet of the refugee experience from a therapeutic perspective; this is why the title refers to therapeutic care rather than to psychotherapy.