Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses is an open-access book edited by practitioners who value the therapeutic impact of coming together with others. The book describes, explores and promotes the power of groupwork for refugees and survivors of human rights abuses in a range of contexts, including torture rehabilitation services, refugee camps, and reception centres. The voices of participants demonstrate the variety, creativity and value of group and community approaches for recovery. The editors have gathered chapters into three sections covering: community-based approaches; groups that work through the medium of “body and soul”; and group approaches that focus on change through the spoken word.
The book aims to provide a forum for survivors and practitioners working internationally to share their practice and learning. Some chapters present groupwork implemented in contexts where individual approaches predominate. Others highlight group approaches happening in places where groups are already the mainstream response. Both involve a move to collectivist values that are more common in countries where the majority of refugees and survivors both come from and are rebuilding their lives.Groupwork places social reconnection at the heart of recovery, and opens the door to peer support and building community resources and resilience. These overcome the isolation and shame that human rights abuses intentionally cause and are also a more effective means of reaching and responding to the large numbers of survivors struggling across the world. Where persecution seeks to disempower, silence and isolate, group and community work bring together and connect survivor voices. This is more than a shift from individual work to helping individuals in a group context, and moves into supporting communities as a whole.
