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Copyright of Orientamenti Pedagogici is the property of Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano (Facoltà di Scienze dell'Educazione dell'Università Pontificia Salesian) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mentre imperversa la guerra in Ucraina, il personale di soccorso di tutta Europa lavora per sostenere i milioni di profughi costretti ad abbandonare le proprie case. Eventi così stressanti e continuativi richiedono risposte utili a prevenire e promuovere la salute emotiva di tutte le vittime. In tale ambito l’EMDR risulta essere la terapia elettiva per il trattamento e la rielaborazione delle esperienze traumatiche vissute sia dai rifugiati sia da chi si occupa di loro. Nell’articolo l’autore, dopo una breve introduzione teorica circa le fasi del trauma e il processo del lutto, illustrerà le modalità di intervento di primo soccorso con EMDR più efficaci per sostenere i rifugiati e chi si occupa di loro. In questo tipo di emergenze infatti, data la continua sollecitazione cui sono sottoposti, i soccorritori si trovano a rischio di sviluppare una traumatizzazione vicaria. È dunque fondamentale pensare ad un intervento di supporto mirato anche per loro al fine di aumentare la resilienza. Mentre imperversa la guerra in Ucraina, il personale di soccorso di tutta Europa lavora per sostenere i milioni di profughi costretti ad abbandonare le proprie case. Eventi così stressanti e continuativi richiedono risposte utili a prevenire e promuovere la salute emotiva di tutte le vittime. In tale ambito l’EMDR risulta essere la terapia elettiva per il trattamento e la rielaborazione delle esperienze traumatiche vissute sia dai rifugiati sia da chi si occupa di loro. Nell’articolo l’autore, dopo una breve introduzione teorica circa le fasi del trauma e il processo del lutto, illustrerà le modalità di intervento di primo soccorso con EMDR più efficaci per sostenere i rifugiati e chi si occupa di loro. In questo tipo di emergenze infatti, data la continua sollecitazione cui sono sottoposti, i soccorritori si trovano a rischio di sviluppare una traumatizzazione vicaria. È dunque fondamentale pensare ad un intervento di supporto mirato anche per loro al fine di aumentare la resilienza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nel corso degli ultimi anni, abbiamo assistito allo sviluppo di conoscenze, strumenti, linee guida internazionali che hanno rilevato l’importanza di interventi psicologi in situazioni traumatiche individuali e collettive. Allo stesso tempo, la terapia EMDR ha seguito da vicino questi sviluppi ed è stata adattata ed integrata per lavorare in situazioni instabili, con popolazioni provenienti da culture, religioni e lingue diverse. Questo articolo approfondisce il contributo della terapia EMDR alla psicoterapia e saranno descritte delle esperienze sul campo e le pubblicazioni scientifiche a sostegno della sua efficacia. Abbiamo visto come molti dei sopravvissuti ad eventi traumatici possono superare queste esperienze e andare oltre. È importante considerare le varie fasi che attraversano le reazioni da stress ed il tipo di intervento più adatto, per portare le persone a raggiungere la resilienza e la crescita post-traumatica. Soprattutto i minori e le popolazioni più esposte hanno bisogno di interventi psicologici specialistici, che parlino il linguaggio del trauma e che permettano di ridurre i sintomi, di stabilizzare, e di sviluppare fattori protettivi personali e di comunità che promuovano la resilienza. La letteratura scientifica in questo campo sottolinea l’importanza di intervenire nelle varie fasi del trauma in modo da prevenire disturbi mentali, di neutralizzare fattori di rischio e soprattutto di promuovere la capacità di adattamento e di crescita post-traumatica. Ad oggi, il metodo EMDR è stato implementato in varie situazioni traumatiche, anche in emergenze umanitarie con popolazioni vulnerabili, nelle diverse fasi del trauma, individualmente e in gruppo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma is the "wound of the soul", a destabilizing experience which disrupts the mind of those who experience it. Unprocessed traumatic memories are often fragmented, disorganized, and can be easily activated in the form of intrusive thoughts, hence traumatized individuals experience various forms of psychological distress. The expressive writing project has proved to be a valid tool as a support in stressful situations, highlighting a generalized positive effect on health. Expressive writing, by translating traumatic thoughts and feelings into language, helps traumatized individuals to make sense of upsetting events, to manage negative emotions, and improve their connections with the social world. The goal of this study was to verify the effect of an expressive writing protocol in a non-clinical context, represented by a sample of young adult university students and, particularly aiming at studying the effects of expressive writing in mitigating potential psychological problems related to stressful and/or traumatic events. Results have confirmed a fair efficacy of the expressive writing protocol, especially in supporting the enhancement of one's coping and adaptation resources with respect to the outcomes of stressful events experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the difference between healthy and unhealthy forms of dissociation following, and in response to, traumatic experience, in particular the experience of refugees, calling on 30 years' experience in working with refugees in voluntary and public sectors, including 20 years at the Refugee Therapy Centre, London. It differentiates dissociation from repression, and looks at some of the specific traumatic experiences associated with refugees' displacement and situation, particularly relating to loss. Four key characteristics of resilience are described: 'psychic space', 'sense of self', and the use of a 'listening other' and 'healthy dissociation/resiliency'. Two vignettes are given to illustrate the difference between healthy and unhealthy dissociation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this second article about work at a refugee centre for unaccompanied minors in Berlin, the author discusses his encounter with Syrian and Afghani adolescents who were enrolled in the program. Issues around adaptation to a new culture are explored with attention to the dynamics of conformity and marginalization. The questions of what happens to adolescent refugees separated from their families, and how their identity formation is shaped by this burden is explored in relation to the author's meeting with a Syrian adolescent living in Berlin. To illustrate the long reach of a missing father who has been left behind, characters from Virgil's Aeneid are discussed to amplify heroic and spiritual aspects within father-son relationships. The interplay between needing help and allowing for resilience is explored as an important aspect of refugees' transitions, while also considering variables such as dependence and independence, foreign and familiar, being with or without family, and adjusting to the present and/whilst relating to the past; tensions between these alternatives can create various psychosocial challenges for adolescent refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a psychodynamic perspective, the present exploratory study proposes an integrated approach to explore the forced migratory experience, focusing simultaneously on mental health risk and protective factors and on the quality of the subjective experience of migration. We aimed to evaluate trauma and protective factors and to explore in-depth representations and meanings asylum seekers hosted in Italy attribute to their experiences. Levels of trauma and resilience were first evaluated for twenty asylum seekers hosted in two Reception Centres; then, in-depth interviews were administered. Six out of twenty participants presented with symptoms of trauma and all presented with moderately high resilience levels. The interviews were analysed using a quality-quantitative methodology via T-Lab software, and showed four thematic clusters: A godforsaken place; From death to life across the sea; Memories from the past; Searching for a land of care. In line with the identity fracture highlighted in psychodynamic literature, our results show a breakdown between the deeper and original aspects of participants' identity and their new cultural identity as migrants, which has many social components. Reflections on the implications of the study will be outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution tells about a couple therapy required for obvious relational difficulties (bad communication, absent sexual intercourse, violation of the couple's contract, ecc.) that after consultation faces the need to deal with the prolonged and pervasive trauma of one of the partners. It was decided not to send to another colleague for individual therapy, but to work both in the individual and the couple format to aim at securing and trauma processing. Couple therapy becomes a widening and safe base to treat a partner's post traumatic behavior. The concept of "wounded child" is central, that is, an unresolved post traumatic individual suffering, which helps us to better understand what is behind the couple stalemate, a tangle between the visible and the concealed, that Mara Selvini Palazzoli called "an iron clad door". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]