Wounded And Uprooted: Seeking Refuge In The Land Of Others

A second key factor affecting the success of a transition has to do with which “type” of needs are attended to – whether both the qualitative and quantitative elements of loss and wounding are adequately treated.

The emotional and psychological toll of multiple major and disrupting life changes can cause substantial drains on the energy, stamina, and internal resources required of a person to adequately adjust to these changes. Being able to first regain and stabilize a person’s original sense of internal balance and security – both in an individual and communal sense – better allows for a steadier, more measured acclimation to new conditions in a new environment, and for a more successful and fuller socio-cultural integration within a new community. Re-establishing this familiar sense of “self” within the new cultural setting reduces internal dissonance, frustration, and uncertainty caused by temporary difficulty in fully accessing previously accustomed strengths, skills, and day to day independence due to being constantly immersed in an unfamiliar “otherness” of the surroundings. If successful this encourages a progressive blending of the deep self with the newly forming communal self.

Our experience shows that if this step is not adequately achieved – or is even skipped – it is highly likely that the integration process is at the least significantly inhibited, if not undermined, long term. This is particularly so for first generation immigrants.

When severe psycho-social trauma is present the stress of these life changes is significantly compounded and can become debilitating. Profound trauma can permeate all dimensions of an individual’s reality. Along the way previously secure positive beliefs can be fundamentally shaken, or even shattered, to be replaced by debilitating and damaging negative beliefs and fragmented perceptions of reality that color all aspects of day to day life from that point forward. If overlooked, minimized, and unresolved, trauma can become imbedded and extend not only through an individuals’ life but into future generations where it becomes part of the transgenerational psyche of a community.

On a communal level the trauma process is vastly more complex. Consequently, treating individuals from large civilian populations suffering from catastrophic psychological trauma in all areas of their society poses unique challenges not typically focused on in the therapeutic literature or conventional clinical practice. In societies where human services are seriously underdeveloped or absent, or where the integrity of the existing social support system itself is critically compromised, this challenge can be overwhelming (Olweean, 2001).

Psychological and emotional injuries may be the most enduring effects of war and violence, yet historically they are the least addressed in terms of either individual or communal recovery. (Olweean, 2001). In the current example of Syrian refugees, needs are often viewed through a quantitative lens – with the focus on more visible basics like food, shelter, clothing, and physical health, as well as economic aid, while the important and less visible qualitative nature of trauma is left less addressed, or even ignored. At the same time, it is this qualitative impact on the individual’s sense of self and perception of the world, and in turn the impact on the community they make up, that is the longest lasting and most difficult to recover from.

Well intentioned helpers often mistakenly gravitate almost exclusively toward quickly identified concrete needs. While this is understandable as a first responding order of business in lending aid to desperate people showing up in one’s community, consideration of what needs exist to attend to can tend to remain narrowly focused on this most visible and quantifiable category. What is missed or ignored are the deeper and longer lasting qualitative wounds and needs – needs that are essential to successful recovery and transition, leaving individuals to struggle with these problems on their own, and most often unsuccessfully.

We have found that within the trauma experience, when a person’s internal resources are greatly diminished, and they are not assisted with on-going psychosocial treatment, being thrust into major life changes most often results in deterioration. In this way unhealed trauma directly and severely inhibits adequate adjustment to resettlement and integration of refugees, and an individual is more likely to withdraw or resist acculturation and integration. This may lead to those providing assistance becoming puzzled when recipients of their help do not demonstrate more enthusiastic satisfaction, or do not more quickly recover from their ordeals and integrate more fully into the local society. The inability to adapt and a lack of understanding by the community of these symptoms can lead to increased isolation, segregation, and continued deterioration.

What is required are an increased public awareness of the symptoms of war trauma in particular, and providing holistic, culturally appropriate trauma healing services to those in need. Under circumstances when there are a significant number of refugees suffering from trauma, approaches to healing that do not also include working with the community as a whole are inadequate and likely to fall short. (Olweean, 2001). Any treatment model must also be sensitive to the cultural and spiritual context of both the trauma experience and treatment. Thus, in addition to adaptations of more standard mental health treatment methods it is important to enlist vital traditional aspects of the society, such as its cultural and spiritual resources (Krippner, 2001).