Startts Hints for Healing

Home

A Refugee Child's
Need for Play

Using Sand Play With
Refugee Children

Case Study: ‘Rosie'

Regular Features:

Hint of the Month

From the Editor's Desk

Deb's Digest

Sticky Notes

Edition 1: Oct 08

> Deb Gould is a STARTTS Clinical Psychologist and clinical supervisor.

What is the typical thematic play that children survivors of refugee trauma engage in? What should clinicians be looking out for?

Hints for Healing regular columnist Deb Gould, a STARTTS Clinical Psychologist and clinical supervisor, answers your questions about working therapeutically with refugee young people.

What is the typical thematic play that children survivors of refugee trauma engage in? What should we as clinicians be looking out for?

Refugee children are not an homogenous group, so there are few generic plans or perspectives. Developmental stage, culture and trauma history are all important variables in assessment and treatment. Play and art themes will reflect all of these variables.

It will also reflect everyday concerns as well as traumatic preoccupations. It will also tell us about separation/loss, chaos and deprivation and the struggles of their traumatised, impotent parents.

Thus, pulling the head off a doll could reflect feelings about a newly arrived sibling (sibling rivalry and revenge), a traumatic experience (trauma re-enactment) or a sense of having symbolically lost head functions (learning difficulties).

Repetitive play has three main functions:

1. Expressive –the details of the trauma and/or the raw feelings eg drawing a house being shelled with bloodied bodies outside;

2. Defensive – keeping the images and feelings out of current awareness through the use of symbols, indirect reference or a constriction of play eg drawing a family of ducks gathered around the pond watching a dove drown might be safer than drawing her family standing around the garden watching her sister being kidnapped. A cautionary note – stay with the duck family;

3. Reparative – where the trauma might be expressed but the play changes within or between sessions towards an integration of the event into daily experience. Sometimes this resolution is only possible if the child have been able to play their experiences out in a safe environment and where possibilities for other outcomes are created and discussed. Some of the ways that therapists can facilitate this include asking particular questions that guide the narrative – “and then what happened?” “What would have happened if...?”

With so much to be aware of, how do we understand what the child is trying to say to us? Where do we go? We use our skills, explore options with the child, and use the language they have used to tell you their story.

> Deb Gould
Deb is a Clinical Psychologist and clinical supervisor at STARTTS. She was trained in South Africa and has over 20 years experience as a clinician and supervisor in the psychotherapy field.

Upcoming STARTTS Training

November 14
Core Concepts & New Developments in Working with Survivors of Torture & Trauma

A one-day workshop designed to provide workers with an understanding of the socio-political nature of war and the issues facing refugee survivors of torture and trauma.

Cost: $99 per participant (GST Inclusive).

To register, contact STARTTS on
Tel: 02 9794 1900