women's asylum support journal issue 1 ed
TRANSCRIPT
WOMEN’S ASYLUM SUPPORT
JOURNAL
Issue 1
1st November 2012
Women’s Project @LRMN
Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network
Parker House
144 Evelyn St
London SE8 5DD
www.lrmn.org.uk
Tel: 020 8694 0323
Fax: 020 8694 6411
Issue 1
1st November 2012
Women’s Project @LRMN
WOMEN’S ASYLUM SUPPORT
JOURNAL
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Main Feature …………………………... 3
Quote of the Quarter…………………..3
Spotlight on………… …. …………… .. 4
Problem Solved………………………….4
Hot Topic………………………………… 5
Info+ Events……………………………. 5
Why I love my Job……………………..7
WELCOME …
To the first issue of Women’s Asylum Support Journal, a quarterly publication designed to
support and inspire front-line counsellors and support/ advocacy staff working with
refugee and asylum-seeking women.
We feel that this sector is specialized, unique, often marginalised, due to the complexity of
casework, the multiple needs of the women we support, and the discrimination they face
in accessing fair treatment or in having their voices heard.
As a result, many of us are working with few opportunities for networking or sharing good
practice, and yet our work requires high levels of energy, empathy, dedication and skill.
This journal was created in response to meeting so many skilled professionals working in a
variety of settings— from community organisations to NHS services, specialist refugee and
sexual violence agencies to social services. This issue is London-focused due to the
contacts available, but we are keen to link up across the UK. If you are working directly
with refugee and asylum-seeking women in a supportive capacity, your expertise is needed
and your contributions are most welcome to what we hope will be a lively forum, so please
send in your comments & ideas for articles to [email protected].
All the best,
Emma Brech Editor
INSIDE THIS ISSUE…
Main Feature (p3): Ann Byrne, Chief Executive at the Women’s Therapy Centre offers us an
insight into how her organisation approaches therapy for refugee and asylum-seeking women.
A problem shared (p4)—how would you respond?
Spotlight on (p4).… focusing on different services for refugee and asylum-seeking women in the
UK; this quarter— counselling and support projects in London.
This issue’s Hot Topic (p5) is on support—how do we meet both the therapeutic and practical
needs of refugee and asylum-seeking women?
And finally, a regular feature to inspire and energise you— Claire Cochrane from the Centre for
the Study of Emotion and Law tells us ‘Why I Love my Job’ (p7).
QUOTE OF THE QUARTER
from Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in
pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and
wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the
tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror
and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously
clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ances-
tors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of
the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
contributed by Jacqui Lovell
SSASI-TV Women
If you would like to contribute
an inspiring quote, please email
3
When Bernice* came to the Women’s Therapy Centre she was an asylum seeker, driven from
her country by rape, violence and torture. Her husband and children had been killed and she
had escaped to the UK via a family friend. When she arrived at the Women’s Therapy Centre,
she was living on benefits in hostel accommodation and was suffering from nightmares and
flashbacks and depression. She spoke limited English and initial sessions were conducted
through an interpreter.
Bernice is the eldest of seven children born to a poor family. She was adopted by her childless
maternal aunt at the age of six and had little contact with her family. She described a loving
relationship with her aunt who died when the patient was 13. She was then returned to a
family from which she was estranged and was quickly married to a wealthy man at the age of
15.
The experience of therapy provided Bernice with an emotional language. During the sessions,
she began to find words (in her own language and in English) to describe her feelings. For
such a traumatised woman, this was a notable achievement. In an endeavour to relate more
directly, she took up English classes and began attending therapy without an interpreter.
It then became possible to link her more recent traumas with the traumatic early loss of first
her family life and then of her beloved Aunt.
The Women's Therapy Centre (WTC) has been offering individual and group psychotherapy
to women since 1976. Its access policy ensures that psychotherapy is available to all women,
regardless of financial or immigration status, sexual orientation, disability, cultural or social
background, previous psychiatric history or age. The WTC has a particular commitment to
offering psychotherapy to women who would not usually have access to it.
Over the years, the Women’s Therapy Centre has developed expertise in working with
highly traumatised populations including refugees/asylum seekers and women who have
experienced extensive abuse, including domestic violence. Our ethos is that it is possible to
work psychoanalytically with even the most traumatised and disturbed women, providing
that appropriate clinical safeguards are in place, if necessary. The experience of therapists at
the Women’s Therapy Centre is that the analytic work needs to be applied and flexible. In
addition to offering assessments, individual and group therapy the WTC offers information
and ‘taster therapy’ sessions which enable women to gain an understanding of mental health
issues and how psychotherapy works. We then facilitate psycho education groups which give
women an opportunity to experience a psychoanalytic way of thinking within a boundaried
setting.
MAIN FEATURE:
Access to psychological therapies for women who are refugees
or asylum seekers can be problematic, not least because in many
cultures the concept of counselling or psychotherapy remains
taboo.
Ann Byrne, Chief Executive of Women’s Therapy Centre, gives
an overview of the approach adopted by her organisation in
improving accessibility.
SPOTLIGHT ON ….
COUNSELLING/ SUPPORT
SERVICES IN LONDON
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For some refugee and asylum-seeking women, additional support is provided by GPs
and/ or other NHS professionals. For many women , the support provided by refugee
and communities based organizations plays a valuable role in promoting access to
therapy.
The Women’s Therapy Centre offers the services of a Link Worker who provides sessions
for women in psychotherapy, providing practical advice and signposting, alongside their
therapy. Her role is crucial in enabling women to more effectively use therapy sessions
as well as freeing up the psychotherapists working with women who have experienced
such trauma and loss . In Bernice’s case, the Link Worker supported her in her applica-
tion for refugee status which she has now achieved. She has also been supported in mak-
ing a successful application for Local Authority Housing and for Disability Living Allow-
ance. At the end of her therapy contract Bernice commented that ‘Therapy improved my
life’. Ann Byrne
*to protect confidentiality this client is an amalgam of several women seen at the Women’s Therapy Centre.
Women’s Therapy Centre is based in North London: www.womenstherapycentre.org.uk
PROBLEM SOLVED
Every quarter we feature a common support/ counselling dilemma and wel-
come your contributions*—either your own dilemmas, or solutions to those
posed by others .
*Please note: dilemmas will be anonymous, solutions will have contributors’ names attached
Next quarter’s dilemma:
Send in your ideas, suggestions, responses to [email protected]
‘I have just started working with a woman who has been refused asylum
and is ‘sofa-surfing’. She suffers from clear PTS symptoms as a result of
detention and rape in the Ivory Coast, and although she comes to see
me every week with practical issues, she remains very wary of counsel-
ling. We have managed to find food parcels for her as well as a small
grant, but it is clear she is talking more and more about emotional is-
sues. How do you suggest we support her towards therapeutic work?’
Women’s Therapy Centre (North) 020 7263 6200 [email protected] Refugee Therapy Centre (North)
020 7561 1587 [email protected] Women and Girls Network (West) 020 7610 4345 www.wgn.org.uk Poppy Project (South) 020 7735 2062
www.eavesforwomen.org.uk
Women’s Project @LRMN (South-East) 020 8694 0323 [email protected] Afghan Association of London (North) 020 88616990
All Afghan Association (West)
02088 408 777
WAST Drop-In [email protected] Eritrean Community in the UK (North) 020 7700 7995 [email protected] The Maya Centre (North) 020 7281 2728 [email protected] Refugee Women’s Association (East) 020 7923 2412 [email protected] IKWRO (Iranian + Kurdish) 0207 920 6460.
West Hampstead Women's Centre (North) 020 7328 7389 [email protected] African Women's Welfare Group (North)
020 8885 5822
Latin American Women’s Rights Service
02073 360 888
[email protected] Housing for Women (South-West) 020 7501 6171 hfw.org.uk
TRAINING & EVENTS
Developing and Delivering
Domestic Violence Training
Organisation: Tender
Date: Wednesday 14th to Friday 16th
November 2012
More info: www.wrc.org.uk
Breaking the cycle: using civil
and criminal remedies to pro-
tect women from violence
Organisation: ROW
Date: 21 November 2012
More info:
www.rightsofwomen.org.uk
Understanding forced marriage
and ‘honour-based’ violence;
Risk and Case Management
Organisation: IMKAAN
Date: 28-29 November 2012
More info: www.imkaan.org.uk
Understanding the effects of
domestic violence and BME
women.
Organisation: IMKAAN
Date: 12-13 December 2012
More info: www.imkaan.org.uk
New Seminar series on
Psychology and Refugee
Protection
Organisation: CSEL / RLI
Date: various
More info: www.rli.sas.ac.uk/
events-courses-and-training/
psychology-and-refugee-protection-
seminar-series.
HOT TOPIC:
How do we combine therapeutic work with the overwhelming practical
support needs of refugee and asylum-seeking women?
For Refugee Therapy Centre an appreciation of the potential
for misunderstandings and failures in communication with
patients is essential in our work. We have identified that a
Western therapeutic approach often excludes the political
dimension as an external reality, which can limit understand-
ing of refugees’ distress. Working with refugee and asylum seeker women who have often
experienced torture and organised violence requires knowledge of the traumatic conse-
quences of state terrorism, and political and historical awareness. For asylum-seekers,
mental health problems often co-exist with other problems such as, homelessness, poverty,
housing and welfare problems, poor physical health and the after-effects of trauma they
have endured.
In recognition, we provide a number of gender and language based groups; including a new
group for lesbian refugees and asylum seekers; and support a team of Bi-lingual Outreach/
Community Development staff and mentors.
Our Bi-lingual Outreach/Community Development staff provide support-work to help us
identify people’s most urgent needs and sign-post to appropriate services. Sessions may
involve sign-posting to services in their local area such as GP surgeries, schooling for chil-
dren, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), computer or other courses for
adults, introduction to appropriate Refugee Community Organisations, or helping people
who do not know where to start looking for employment, voluntary or paid. In addition, the
team provides a listening ear for people feeling isolated, stressed, concerned about their
current circumstances or worried about the future. We find this a very effective means of
helping people from communities in which the idea of counselling and psychotherapy is
unknown or stigmatised.
Our mentoring project provides weekly, one-to-one support sessions for adults and children
which focus on easing the processes of adaptation and integration. We help with children’s
education and help women to improve their English language skills and become familiar
with British ways of life in an atmosphere of trust. Working to support children’s education
has added to our ability to develop trust with the women we serve and it is encouraging to
be able to help mothers and their children thrive economically, socially and educationally
whilst supporting with their emotional development. Sarah Lee
Refugee Therapy Centre is based in North London: www.refugeetherapycentre.org.uk
Our Bilingual Outreach/Community Development staff provides support-work to help us identify people’s most urgent needs and signpost to appropriate services.
5
Refugee Therapy Centre uses bilingual outreach workers
and mentors who work separately from therapists
to identify the most urgent needs within each
community….
BOOKS & RESOURCES
Books
Trauma and Recovery
by Judith Herman M.D.
The Body Remembers
by Babette Rothschild
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
By Dr Christiane Northrup
Articles
‘Just Tell Us What Happened to You: Auto-
biographical Memory and Seeking Asylum’
Jane Herlihy, Laura Jobson and Stuart Turner .
Email CESL for a PDF: [email protected].
Please email us with your
recommendations…
AND ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE...
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For many refugees counselling is unfamiliar. Practical and emotional/ psychological needs may not be
clearly defined or separated and this is not surprising considering the increased levels of isolation,
disorientation and discrimination experienced Repeated unsuccessful attempts to negotiate systems or
solve problems can result in feeling de-skilled and helpless.
At Compass, an important aspect of our work has been the development of a culturally sensitive
approach to counselling, acknowledging migration trauma and providing support within the context of
the additional challenges of being a refugee/asylum seeker in the UK. In providing an effective service,
we have reviewed our counselling models and have identified ways to widen access to counselling.
One aspect within this process has involved considering our response to practical and advocacy needs.
Whilst signposting to agencies is an effective way to meet additional needs and maintain clear counsel-
ling boundaries, our experience suggests this is often unsuccessful in isolation. Compass counsellors
have found that addressing an immediate issue, such as helping clients contact professionals or make a
phone call, negotiating referral systems or providing a letter of support have reinforced therapeutic goals
rather than detracting from them. Asking for help may be seen as a first step towards independence and
autonomy – what message do we give if this is rejected or not heard?
The BACP Information sheet G8 (BACP, June 2008) acknowledges differing expectations clients may
bring to therapy and the reasonable assumption that ‘elders’ or ‘experts’ will offer advice or concrete
help. Requesting help from trusted professionals, including counsellors, is an understandable re-
sponse. It is reasonable to assume professionals have a greater understanding of systems in the UK.
Our aim in counselling is to contain and hold these varied needs, addressing them differently, but un-
derstanding them in context as a whole. Interventions need to be explicit and carefully negotiated with
clear sense of outcomes, to avoid confusing our role as therapists or disempowering clients.
Supported referral to specialist agencies can support on-going or complex advocacy needs.
Counselling models need to adapt and grow to meet the needs of our clients if we are to offer a truly
culturally sensitive and accessible service. At Compass, we believe that our response can significantly
affect therapeutic outcomes, and that a refusal to engage with these needs can be experienced as rejec-
tion or as not being heard, mirroring wider experiences as an asylum seeker. Louise Fahey
Compass at Off the Record is based in Croydon: www.offtherecordcroydon.org
What do you think? Send us your responses or ideas for your own ‘Hot Topic’
Compass, an organisation specialising in therapy for young refugees and
asylum-seekers, believe that offering some practical support within therapy
sends an important message to their client group...
Asking for help may be seen as a first step towards independence and autonomy—what message do we give if this is rejected or not heard?
WOMEN’S PROJECT@ LRMN
The Women’s Project@LRMN is a small
counselling and advocacy project aimed at
supporting refugee and asylum-seeking wom-
en who have suffered gender-based violence
(GBV).
Based within Lewisham Refugee and Migrant
Network in Deptford, South-East London, the
project is funded by Comic Relief and Trust
for London and is an organisational member
of the BACP.
Our aim through counselling, advocacy and
group work is to address the effects of trau-
ma and displacement, providing a safe space
in which women can come together, and
discover their own resources and resilience as
they strive to make their voices heard.
We are passionate about our project and keen
to work in partnership with other organisa-
tions. For more information, please contact
Emma Brech on 020 8694 0323 or via
email at [email protected]
‘If the passion I’ve seen could make every asylum seeker safe,
sanctuary would take on a whole new meaning.’
For the last three years I’ve been lucky enough to work train-
ing people who support traumatised women seeking asylum,
to understand scientific research into the effects of trauma on memory for those
going through the asylum process. The research, by the Centre for the Study of
Emotion and Law (CSEL), can and has been used by women* and their legal
representatives to help explain why they did not disclose a traumatic experience
(such as sexual violence) immediately, or why their accounts of their experiences
are not exactly the same each time they tell them.
Immigration judges need to base their decisions on authoritative evidence.
CSEL’s research is published in high profile academic journals, and has been peer
-reviewed (read and approved for publication) by other experts and academics
before being published. All our research studies use rigorous scientific methodol-
ogies that can be repeated by anyone wishing to test our findings.
During this project I’ve loved the enthusiasm of the staff and volunteers I’ve met
around the UK working to support women seeking asylum. The conditions of any
job are vitally important, but everyone I’ve met is definitely also working for the
love of the work. If the passion I’ve seen could make every asylum seeker safe,
sanctuary would take on a whole new meaning.
I’ve also loved having the opportunity to bring together refugee-supporting
organisations and violence against women support organisations. These two
kinds of groups come from very different traditions – refugee support has its
background in humanitarian concern and charity, sexual violence survivor sup-
port in feminist and women’s activism and solidarity – and don’t have a history
of working together. But they have so much to share, and when they get a chance
to meet and talk about their work, inspiration happens. I hope that through this
project we’re enabling new partnership working that will mean women refugees
can more easily access really good help to recover from often terrible experiences.
The project has produced a training toolkit so you can train yourselves to use and
understand our research. It’s free to download from our website at:
www.csel.org.uk/resources.html, or you can order a printed copy from CSEL (£2
donation requested to cover costs) by emailing [email protected].
*CSEL’s research findings cover men’s experiences too, and can be used in working with men, but this
project has been funded by Comic Relief particularly to support vulnerable and traumatised women
seeking asylum.
CSEL is based in London: www.csel.org.uk
Tell us why you love your job working with refugee and asylum-seeking
women. Send 300 words max + jpeg photo (optional) to
Or if you would like to contribute to any other section of Women’s Asylum
Support Journal, email or give Emma a call on 020 8694 0323.
WHY I LOVE MY JOB: CLARE COCHRANE
Research Dissemination Worker, Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law
Thanks to…
All LRMN staff for your help and support, partic-
ularly:
Nur Jahan Mazumder technical support
Cristina Zorat technical support
Margot Lawrence advice/ editorial
Denver Garrison listings / admin
7
Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network
Parker House
144 Evelyn St
London SE8 5DD
Phone: 020 8694 0323
Fax: 020 8694 6411
E-mail: [email protected]
www.lrmn.org.uk
Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network is a
registered charity ( no 105 8631) and
a company limited by guarantee (no 3252691).
Facebook.com/
LewishamRefugeeandMigrantNetwork