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Services
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We
offer:
Individual psychotherapy and counselling
Many factors influence our mental health, especially as
a refugee or an asylum seeker. It is not only about what
might have happened to us and to our communities, but
also about:
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the loss and
separation we endured
-
the guilt we feel
about surviving
-
the loss of our
familiar environment
-
adapting to a new way
of life
-
learning new
languages
We may also feel under
stress about the process of our integration
and adaptation in Britain, our experiences of housing,
jobs, schools, transport, the environment, the language
barrier, as well as the ways we live our lives. Perhaps
after much unhappiness, if we do not seek appropriate
help, we may be left with invisible wounds or many
unanswered questions, as well as practical problems in
managing our day to day lives, and the life of our
children or our dependents.
 Many of the counsellors and psychotherapists at the
Refugee Therapy Centre have been refugees ourselves, and
we want to help refugees who may find their lives
difficult here in the UK and would like some help. We
can listen with respect and sometimes contribute from
our own experience and knowledge. People may wish to see
a psychotherapist or counsellor who speaks their own
language or they may prefer to see an English speaker.
We take into account the fact that some patients prefer
not to see someone from their own cultural background,
due to feelings of mistrust, guilt, shame or
embarrassment and also the intensity of emotion and
pain.
If you would like to know more, please contact the
Centre. We receive written referrals from mental health
professionals, Refugee Community Organisations, GPs,
Social Services and schools. Individuals can also
contact the Centre themselves and speak to one of our
administrators. This often leads to a conversation with
an assessor – someone a person can talk to about his or
her situation and needs. After that, if it feels right
for the individual, he or she might go on to meet a
counsellor or psychotherapist who they can talk to for
an hour at the same time each week, for as long as
needed.
Group
therapy
“
Therapy is like a mother feeding the child. Initially
when I joined the group, it was strange, but now seems
like going to loving family home, strong support in
therapy which has also help me to even talk about my
jealousy and envious.”
Nadia –
member of a Farsi speaking women’s group
The Centre provides
supportive, therapeutic women’s groups and men’s groups
in several different languages for asylum seekers
and refugees who wish to explore new ways of being.
While each refugee’s
experience is unique, there are some experiences which
may be common to particular groups of women or men, for
example those coming from the same environment who speak
the same language. These experiences may have involved
political or state violence, persecution, imprisonment,
rape, torture, domestic or family abuse, or several of
these.
Women and men who come
to the UK as refugees or asylum seekers may also find
the process of integrating into the new society
difficult and painful. Being a mother or a father in a
strange environment may be quite challenging.
As a result of
as a result
of the trauma and losses they have experienced, as well
as current difficulties with immigration and
resettlement, refugee and asylum seeker women and men
may experience frequent feelings of depression and
anxiety, as well as sleeplessness, flashbacks and
headaches. They
may experience feelings of isolation due to the
social, cultural and religious stigma attached to mental
health problems and specifically sexual violence, as
well as living in an unfamiliar environment often with
uncertainty about their immigration status.
Our supportive groups
provide an environment in which participants can feel
the relief and support of genuine human contact.
Group
members can gain mutual relief and support from the
sharing of experiences, often in their own language. The
help and encouragement gained from the group assists in
breaking the ring of isolation that many of our clients
feel trapped within.
The age range of
participants is usually between 25 and 45 years.
Participants are asked at the beginning to try to commit
to a minimum of three months in the group and then, if
they wish to stay, to make a further commitment until
the summer break. At this point, each person is invited
to make a decision as to whether he or she wants to
continue in the group for another year or not.
We now have
a total of 7 language groups, 5 of which are for
women
and 2 are for men.
If you
are interested in joining one of our groups, or know
someone who would like this kind of help and support,
please contact the
Centre to arrange a preliminary
meeting.
“ It came
to the point in my life where I had to ask myself: Is
there life? Does it have to be lived? If so, how and
where should I find the strength to live a quiet life? A
light and great hope for me was the Refugee Therapy
Centre, where I go every fortnight for a women’s group.
Therapy has been like a safe haven and being able to
have a therapist who speaks my own language makes me
feel like a home. The fact that there are people in my
life who are working with all their strength and
calmness for me so that I can have a happy life, gives
me hope for living. So I have decided to work with all
my strength, with the help I receive from the group, so
that I may never be a depressive again. Now I only think
of my children’s security, because only here will they
find safety. The children are going to school and are
absorbing the English culture, which for me as a mother
and with my condition is so positive. It is reassuring
to know that they are safe and happy. Above are all the
reasons why I can continue a normal life again.
”
Amina,
member of a women’s group
Couple therapy
Some refugees who have been through traumatic
experiences in their home country, as well as the stress
of fleeing persecution or war, and the process of
seeking asylum and learning to live in a new environment
may develop marital or relationship difficulties. These
difficulties may be the result of being in the wrong
partnership or they may be the result of trauma, with
partners blaming each other and projecting their stress
to each other. This may jeopardise their marriage or
partnership. If this is the case, after assessment we
work with couples to provide them with space and
encourage them to verbalise their thoughts and feelings
in a holding environment. With the help of the therapist
they can think through the origin of their difficulties
and see whether their problems stem from being in the
wrong relationship or are the result of traumas they
have experienced.
Child and
adolescent psychotherapy
As a result of what they have been through, the inner
worlds of some young refugees and asylum seekers may be
populated by abuse and horror that expresses itself in a
variety of unconscious, non-verbal manners, evoking
strong negative feelings in the people around them. Even
refugee children whose experiences are less obviously
terrifying have to deal with being displaced and severe
disruption of the normal routines of life.
 Many
emotional and behavioural problems among refugee
children are consistently associated with the effects of
war and other atrocities. Increased anxiety and
depression are common responses. Some children act out
their distress rather than talking about it.
Parents and teachers have identified and reported significant changes in
behaviour following war experiences. Self-harm and
eating disorders are another regular manifestation of
distress in children who have been exposed to violence.
Poor concentration and memory impairment are common
reactions, and children can suffer loss of development
skills which threatens their educational achievement,
and, when left unattended, these difficulties can
progress to serious and complex problems later in life.
Working through their experiences in a safe and
supportive environment offers children insight into
their problems, helping them to verbalise feelings which
they may have feared or suppressed through aggressive or
harmful behaviour. Enabling children to understand their
experiences and feelings can help to relieve their
distress and enable them to make positive changes. As
one young person told us, “Sometimes it is easier to
talk with a stranger, to tell your feelings openly
without fearing. Therapy helps me to understand a
situation, to find a way to pass the problem. It makes
me feel not alone.”
We address the needs of the individual child, working
through past experiences, providing support to tackle
current difficulties and rebuilding the child's
confidence and self-esteem which helps them to make a
positive contribution to their new environment. We
primarily use a psychodynamic or psychoanalytic approach
in our assessment and treatment.
The Centre receives referrals for children and young
people from schools, colleges, refugee community
organisations, social services and health professionals.
We prioritise working with children, young people and
their families, as we believe that if children and
families are helped early enough, much needless
emotional suffering and difficulty in later life may be
prevented.
Family therapy
One of our priorities is giving help to children, young
people and their families. Parents may want to talk to
someone about concerns they have about their child. They
might want to bring their child to meet one of our
therapists and arrange help for their child - we can
also provide help for the family as a whole.
 The
Centre receives referrals for children experiencing
problems of adjustment either at school, or at home. In
their struggle to cope with their past experiences these
children often exhibit feelings of anger, what is
usually called ‘challenging behaviour’ such as lack of
attention and concentration, or worrying symptoms of
withdrawal. The therapeutic approach we use can help
children or young people to see how and why they may
project their feelings of persecution on to those around
them. With ongoing therapeutic intervention, we help
them to deal with the emotions that lie beneath their
behaviour and with the reactions it provokes in other
people, and help them to learn how they can cope with
their experiences.
When referred, a child is
seen either alone or with
 a
parent in the first session, according to what is most
appropriate for his/her age and development, and
depending also on the reason for referral. Then parent/s
or foster carer will be offered space in assessment.
After an initial assessment, the therapist plans an
intervention for that child where necessary. This may
involve seeing only the child on its own, or seeing
other members of the family either separately or all
together. In some circumstances, the child may be best
helped if we work intensively with and alongside, for
example, a relative with a mental health problem.
Mentoring project
We offer
weekly, one-to-one mentoring sessions for refugees
and
asylum seekers in the process of getting to know their
new environment. These sessions focus on helping ease
the process
of integration for people, and providing
them with therapeutic language support. The mentors are
all volunteers from University College London, who are
studying medicine or postgraduate level psychology.
Mentoring sessions may involve help with English
language skills through conversation, assistance with
understanding official letters
and forms, or general
help with homework for young people, in an atmosphere of
trust in which clients are given full attention.
The
sessions are not therapy, but they do provide valuable
support and
a safe space for clients to discuss issues
to do with adapting to their new environment. Clients
are seen every week by the same medical student, and the
students receive fortnightly supervisions with a senior
clinical psychologist or psychotherapist to discuss any
issues they have.
Aims
of the Mentoring project:
• To ease the process of adaptation and integration for
refugees
and asylum seekers, especially children and adolescents
• To improve refugees’ and asylum seekers’ English
language
skills through conversation, help with understanding official forms
and letters etc. where needed
• To help young refugees and asylum seekers having
difficulties
with language and culture shock at school, by assisting them
with their homework
• To provide teachers with somewhere they can refer
children
who need extra support where it is not available at school
• To help asylum seekers cope with the sometimes very
difficult
position of uncertainty (waiting and not knowing what will happen)
they are in during the process of applying for asylum
This project is open to all refugees and asylum seekers
across
London. If you know someone who would like this kind of
help and support, please do
contact
the Centre.
Support Outreach
project
Our bi-lingual Support
Workers can provide a more active style of support which
suits people coping with practical issues related to the
processes of resettlement.
The Support Workers can offer confidential help and
support with:
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Understanding and
getting to know the new environment.
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Accessing services
such as health, education for children, and English
or computer courses for adults.
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Finding work or a volunteering
opportunity
They can also provide a
"listening ear" to people who:
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Feel isolated and
would like to talk to someone in private.
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Are not happy with
their present circumstances and are worried about
the future, or have other worries they want to talk
about to someone in private.
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Have concerns or
difficulties in their family, or are worried about a
family member they are caring for.
This service is currently available in 10 languages:
Amharic, English, Farsi, French,
Italian, Lingala, Somali,
Spanish, Tigrinia and Turkish.
Referrals for support can be made in writing, or people
may wish to come along to our Support Outreach
Drop-in mornings, every Thursday from 10.30am - 12.30pm
at the Centre.
Support for
refugee volunteers
One of our main aims is to provide initial training and
support for refugees working as volunteers for the
Centre, in areas such as office administration, IT,
translation, support work and counselling.
Through the work
of our Volunteer Coordinator we are able to offer the
opportunity to refugees and asylum seekers to learn new
skills, build their confidence and gain experience in a
work environment.
All our
volunteers are also offered therapeutic help if they
would like it, and may join the Centre’s one year
Introductory Course on Counselling Refugees free of
charge.
If you would like
to apply to volunteer for the Centre, please download
the Volunteer Application Form. Then return this
to the Volunteer Coordinator by post, together with a
copy of your CV and a covering letter telling us a
little bit about yourself.
Work Supervision at the Refugee Therapy
Centre
Even fully qualified and experienced professional
psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors come for
a fortnightly supervision session at the Centre. However
wide their general experience, working with people who
have been refugees and asylum seekers requires
understanding of life events which may be painfully
difficult to tolerate; strange, unfamiliar, unbearable.
It is a relief, to the experienced as well as less
experienced staff, to be able to recount what they have
heard, consider how they responded, get over the pain
and shock, and have the support they need to face the
task with renewed confidence. Often supervision in a
small group of three or four people who share their
experiences, rather than one-to-one supervision, is most
helpful.
Clearly, supervision for the less experienced and for
beginners is even more carefully organised, and more
frequent.
The Centre also provides such clinical supervision for
the other professionals who are involved with out
clientele – the Support Outreach workers, mentors, and
other aid workers – both as a form of support and as
education which may lead them to look for further
training in an area of their choice.
An opportunity for those working for other agencies or
independently
The Refugee Therapy Centre welcomes opportunities to
extend its supervisory facilities to other professionals
and students.
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