Search

Objectives The article presents the clinical description and discussion of a 17 years old Moroccan unaccompanied minor who migrated on his own to France. This case illustrates the complexity of the foreign unaccompanied minors’ trajectories and the challenges of the clinical and institutional accompaniment provided in France. In the lights of the results of our clinical work and research, we suggest transcultural tools and perspectives that facilitate the construction of a narrative and that reinforce trust with the professionals-care givers working along with this population. Creativity is needed in the care of foreign isolated young people, in the absence of the family. Past traumatic experiences in these youths’ lives hinder the process of building trust in the host country’s educational accompaniment. Method In the framework of our action research, we describe the transcultural therapy setting created by our team to address the unaccompanied minors’ psychological distress. Aiming to encourage the emergence of a life narrative that had been obstructed and ruptured by traumatic experiences, we resort to various tools facilitating the storytelling (objects, circle test, mediators interpreters, transcultural interpretations). Results The discussion follows three stances: the anthropological perspective focusing on the specific situation of the harraga—young people wandering both on the psychic and physical levels—, the political perspective, and the trauma clinic perspective. The enhancement and deepening of the cross-cultural skills of social workers strengthen their resources and provide them with better tools to accompany these young people. Additionally, results highlight the impact of the political discourse and strategies in the social workers’ self-perception and the strains it creates in their daily work. Conclusion The transcultural approach addressed to unaccompanied minors relaunches the identity construction process in adolescence, impeded by their traumatic journey in migration. This implies restoring coherence in the life path of young people despite the rupture caused by the migration, often reactivated by new separations during the repetitive changes of foster homes. The unaccompanied minors have the possibility, through this clinical setting to depict an accurate representation of themselves, to develop narratives that can outgrow the preconceptions associated with their status, opening a brighter way for their individual destinies., Objectifs À travers la description et la discussion d’une situation d’un jeune isolé étranger d’origine marocaine venu seul en France à 17 ans, nous transmettons des éléments de compréhension et des outils transculturels pour faciliter l’émergence d’un récit et d’un lien de confiance avec les professionnels qui l’accompagnent. Une créativité s’impose dans la prise en charge des jeunes isolés étrangers, car la famille est à distance, et les obstacles à la mise en place d’un lien de confiance dans l’accompagnement éducatif sont nombreux (liés aux expériences du passé et aux traumatismes psychiques). Méthode Nous décrivons un dispositif d’accueil transculturel adapté à ces jeunes, qui se base sur le principe de narrativité en utilisant divers supports de narration et de médiation (objets, circle test , médiateurs-interprètes, propositions transculturelles). Nous favorisons ainsi l’émergence d’un récit biographique initialement difficile d’accès face au statut particulier de la parole dans ce contexte. Résultats La discussion se fait sous 3 angles : anthropologique avec un éclairage sur la situation spécifique des harraga qui sont des jeunes en errance à la fois psychique et physique, l’angle politique, et la clinique du psychotraumatisme. Sur le plan du travail éducatif, la mise en valeur et l’approfondissement des compétences transculturelles des professionnels permettent de pallier un sentiment d’épuisement ou d’échec, et à terme, mieux accompagner ces jeunes. Les modalités d’accueil et nos manières de les soigner interrogent notre relation à l’autre, à nous-mêmes, au lien social et au politique. Conclusion Une approche transculturelle peut aider le jeune à renouer un processus de construction identitaire loin de ses repères, en pleine période d’adolescence. Cela suppose de retrouver une cohérence dans le parcours des jeunes malgré la rupture de la migration, souvent réactivée par de nouvelles séparations lors des changements réguliers de lieux de vie. Les jeunes isolés étrangers ont la possibilité, dans le cadre de ce dispositif, de montrer une juste représentation d’eux-mêmes, d’élaborer des récits qui échappent aux représentations préconçues liées à leur statut et de construire leurs destins individuels.

Paternal involvement impacts the relationship between mother and child and protects the transmission of the traumatic experience in a migratory context. A study was conducted in France with mother-child dyads in which the women were exposed to traumatic events. It identified three themes around the metatheme of the father's place: the husband's function as moral support during migration, his cultural function as a relay for his wife to the child, and the maintenance of the bond despite his physical absence.

Over recent years, more and more unaccompanied minors have been arriving on French territory in search of a better future. As a result of their complicated journey before, during and after the migration, these youngsters have specific psychological needs which are not always recognised by the professionals working with them. Research has highlighted the elements weakening the educational alliance between youngsters and the adults surrounding them.

Les problématiques identitaires auxquelles sont confrontées tous les adolescents et jeunes adultes peuvent être particulièrement mises sous tensions en contexte transculturel. L’objectif de cette recherche qualitative est d’étudier la construction identitaire de jeunes femmes nées en France et dont les deux parents ont migré du Maghreb. À cette fin, des entretiens semi-directifs sont menés avec 20 sujets (âge : 17-25 ans), retranscrits, puis analysés avec l’Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2008). Les résultats révèlent trois thématiques majeures de la construction identitaire dans cette population : la pratique de l’Islam, la normé d’endogamie, la norme de virginité. Ces normes et pratiques culturelles représentent des marqueurs symboliques de l’identité, permettant une inscription filiative et affiliative. Ces enjeux identitaires s’inscrivent dans les relations historiques - passées et actuelles - entre populations maghrébines et société française., The identity issues, faced by every young adult, are particularly stressed in a transcultural context. The objective of this qualitative research is to study the identity construction of young women, born in France of parents who emigrated from the Maghreb. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 subjects (Age range: 17-25 years), tape recorded and analyzed with the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2008). The results reveal three salient issues of the identity construction in this population: the Islam practice, the norm of endogamy and the norm of virginity. These cultural norms and practices represent symbolic markers of identity. They acquired their status as identity issues in the interaction between France and people from the Maghreb, in the past and even more today.

Most children adopted in a foreign country present somatic disorders, which can have an impact on the construction of the bond with the adoptive parents. This potential complication must be taken into account in the adoption procedure and during the post-adoption follow-up, taking on board the trauma of everyone involved.

International audience; Puberty provokes physiological upheaval that can be psychologically traumatic and destabilizing for the child. Before the transformations of puberty, the body is a protective vessel that acts as a stable reference for the child. A child's emotional security is derived from a sense of predictability and well-being. However, the nascent sexuality and burgeoning libido experienced during puberty can trigger unsettling changes in the psycho-affective and psycho-dynamic equilibrium of the child as he or she transforms into an adolescent. This article presents puberty as a transformative experience with traumatic impact that needs to be considered in therapy conducted with adolescents. At best, pubescent trauma can cause superficial issues in a child's adaptive abilities; at worse, it can lead to pathological symptoms. This article presents a qualitative study derived from a clinical case of an adolescent girl who expresses her pubescent suffering through social withdrawal and mutism. The study determines several symptomatic and traumatic indicators caused by the sudden physiological transformations of puberty, such as perceived breaches in a child's sense of safety and the child's ability to predict. The study also explores the feelings of helplessness, vulnerability, and aloneness that pubescent adolescents endure, which are then exacerbated by the sensed inability to turn to parents for help or peers for support.

Over recent years, more and more unaccompanied minors have been arriving on French territory in search of a better future. As a result of their complicated journey before, during and after the migration, these youngsters have specific psychological needs which are not always recognised by the professionals working with them. Research has highlighted the elements weakening the educational alliance between youngsters and the adults surrounding them.

Being parents is an adventure in itself. Being parents in a cross-cultural situation, in exile, away from family and friends, is a double challenge. Today, we know more about the risks and the potential. Let's explore the key ingredients for early childhood: how to live through pregnancy, welcoming the child, being father and mother, building a family in our own way by blending it with local ways of doing things, a more or less hospitable land of welcome. This is followed by a set of guidelines for all the professionals who intervene at this crucial period to build the parent-child bond.

The family provides a holding and benevolent environment, allowing the subject to construct himself psychically. Beyond the family, the group of belonging allows an individual to feel that he or she exists. During migration, belonging can be broken: loss of country, language, family, social status, etc. In France, a reception programme for migrants in families helps them to integrate and rebuild their lives. The initial family dynamic is modified. Some important points need to be taken into account during this reception: motivations, consequences on family dynamics and psychological reshuffling.

Being parents is an adventure in itself. Being parents in a cross-cultural situation, in exile, away from family and friends, is a double challenge. Today, we know more about the risks and the potential. Let's explore the key ingredients for early childhood: how to live through pregnancy, welcoming the child, being father and mother, building a family in our own way by blending it with local ways of doing things, a more or less hospitable land of welcome. This is followed by a set of guidelines for all the professionals who intervene at this crucial period to build the parent-child bond.

The family provides a holding and benevolent environment, allowing the subject to construct himself psychically. Beyond the family, the group of belonging allows an individual to feel that he or she exists. During migration, belonging can be broken: loss of country, language, family, social status, etc. In France, a reception programme for migrants in families helps them to integrate and rebuild their lives. The initial family dynamic is modified. Some important points need to be taken into account during this reception: motivations, consequences on family dynamics and psychological reshuffling.

International audience

Il existe autant de risques de basculement dans l’engagement radical, que d’histoires singulieres des adolescents. Nous avons mene une etude en population generale sur les representations des jeunes et la radicalite. Nous analysons l’entretien d’une jeune femme musulmane franco-algerienne. Son recit permet de montrer les liens entre sa quete identitaire et le contexte socio-historique tel qu’elle se le represente, ce qui permet d’articuler l’intrapsychique, le subjectif et le collectif.

In the context of the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a team of young Lebanese social workers attempted to identify the most economically vulnerable people. These professionals have themselves sometimes been exposed to social and economic difficulties, having in their own past experienced war and deprivation. They were confronted with experiences of war, poverty, inter-community conflicts, the recollection of their own family trauma or guilt. Support in the form of psychological care was provided to them.

Este articulo aborda la especificidad de las reacciones contratransferenciales en un contexto belico. La vineta clinica se extrae de una investigacion que explora los mecanismos de transmision del trauma en la contratransferencia entre los terapeutas que trabajan con pacientes traumatizados. Se analizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas de acuerdo con el analisis fenomenologico interpretativo de los datos, con el fin de mantenerse lo mas cerca posible de la experiencia subjetiva de los participantes en torno al fenomeno estudiado. Los resultados de nuestro estudio sacan a la luz reacciones contratransferenciales invasivas: el cuerpo del terapeuta como lugar de inscripcion transitoria de transmisiones traumaticas indecibles; la experiencia emocional vivida atravesada por momentos de cuestionamiento de la identidad, sentimientos de verguenza y culpa, agresividad convertida en miedo a traumatizar al paciente, y un sentimiento de desinscripcion de la comunidad de pares en el contexto humanitario.

As part of a research project aiming to measure the psychological impact of humanitarian intervention in the wars affecting the Middle East, 28 humanitarian players working with refugees and displaced people took part in semi-structured qualitative interviews. The material was analysed using the interpretative phenomenological approach. The results show indications of transmission of the trauma when issues of identity and a sense of belonging are involved, psychosomatic manifestations as well as complex transference-countertransference relationships.

International audience; Most children adopted in a foreign country present somatic disorders, which can have an impact on the construction of the bond with the adoptive parents. This potential complication must be taken into account in the adoption procedure and during the post-adoption follow-up, taking on board the trauma of everyone involved.

In the context of the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a team of young Lebanese social workers attempted to identify the most economically vulnerable people. These professionals have themselves sometimes been exposed to social and economic difficulties, having in their own past experienced war and deprivation. They were confronted with experiences of war, poverty, inter-community conflicts, the recollection of their own family trauma or guilt. Support in the form of psychological care was provided to them.

As part of a research project aiming to measure the psychological impact of humanitarian intervention in the wars affecting the Middle East, 28 humanitarian players working with refugees and displaced people took part in semi-structured qualitative interviews. The material was analysed using the interpretative phenomenological approach. The results show indications of transmission of the trauma when issues of identity and a sense of belonging are involved, psychosomatic manifestations as well as complex transference-countertransference relationships.

Close observation of the interactions between a traumatised mother and her infant son provides information on the modes of transmission of psychic trauma in the mother–infant dyad. Following the pr...

Dans le suivi psychotherapique transculturel d’un adolescent mineur etranger isole, avec les referents medicaux ou les travailleurs sociaux, les therapeutes apprehendent la souffrance psychique, les comportements, les demandes du patient dans un cadre ou l’ecoute et l’elaboration peuvent se faire dans toute la complexite et la multiplicite des experiences du patient, a partir des materiels culturel et psychiatrique, permettant d’eviter des erreurs diagnostiques et un clivage frequent entre la culture d’origine et celle du pays d’accueil. Face a une realite externe faite d’incertitudes, de precarite et d’isolement, comment la prendre en compte sans qu’elle n’envahisse trop l’espace psychotherapique ? Lorsque une demande d’evaluation diagnostique preside au suivi, quelles implications a le diagnostic sur le travail transculturel, particulierement quand le patient amene des elements delirants evocateurs de troubles psychotiques ?

In line with the theoretical elaboration of countertransference in the trauma clinic, this article addresses the therapist’s relationship to the strangeness of the trauma, as well as his/her interaction with the cultural difference of the other, who is in this case, the traumatized patient. Thirty-one therapists were interviewed about their subjective experiences, using the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis. This article shows interesting subtleties in countertransference reactions to trauma narratives and sheds light on processes indicative of trauma transmission. Therapists interviewed could express experiencing moments of strangeness and inner disquiet; resonance in the defense mechanisms deployed by therapists and by patients at certain moments of the therapy; resorting to disregarding cultural interpretations/generalizations to make sense of an utterly painful situation and put a protective distance with the patients’ culture of origin.

International audience; L’observation détaillée des interactions entre une mère traumatisée et son bébé renseigne sur les modalités de transmission du traumatisme psychique au bébé. Méthode : Après avoir présenté une revue de la littérature sur l’état actuel de la question, nous illustrerons la problématique par la situation clinique d’une mère haïtienne et de son enfant de 2 ans et demi, rencontrée dans une crèche préventive en région parisienne. Nous analysons la première rencontre avec cette dyade, selon l’axe de la qualité des interactions, pour voir comment un récit traumatique peut impacter sur ces liens mère-bébé, voire avec le thérapeute. Ce récit, en période périnatale, peut raviver des éléments forts d’une histoire à la fois singulière et collective. Résultats : Mère et bébé se répondent l’un et l’autre par l’émission et la réception de « résidus radioactifs ». Discussion : Ce cas clinique montre la nécessité de considérer l’aspect transculturel et l’histoire collective en association avec les événements traumatiques. Le contre-transfert peut être un outil clinique pour accéder au vécu du bébé.

Les auteures montrent en quoi la langue maternelle s’inscrit dans la construction identitaire et donne le sentiment d’appartenir a un groupe. Dans l’accueil de patients traumatises, l’usage de la langue maternelle, lieu de transmission de trauma, permet au patient d’exterioriser les emotions de maniere differenciee, du fait du sentiment d’affiliation qui permet le partage des theories etiologiques et des implicites culturels. Les interpretes contribuent a cet environnement securisant en assurant la fonction d’informateur culturel. La langue maternelle et le recours aux interpretes agissent donc comme des leviers therapeutiques, mediatisant le rapport du patient avec son trauma mais laissant le traducteur et le clinicien face a un trop-plein, un potentiel traumatisme vicariant qu’il faut les aider a gerer.