Understanding The Possible Effects Of Trauma On The Lives Of Refugee Women

Violence against women is a widespread phenomenon that affects millions of women all over the world.

War, armed conflicts and political upheavals are some of the reasons that oblige women to flee their home countries in order to survive.

Women and children are easy and strategic targets in the conflicts nowadays, a situation that places them in an extremely vulnerable position. Many refugee women have endured unimaginable horrors, and survival has been possible at the expense of living with the effects of trauma.

Trauma affects people in different ways, and not every person will suffer such effects. It will depend on the traumatic experience or experiences, on the individual and their unique characteristics and on their social networks and the support they may receive from them.

Here, resilience plays an important role in helping women heal after living or witnessing devastating events and after arriving in the host country, which is hostile and perpetuates their distress.

The process of becoming a refugee is harsh and exhausting.

It implies facing discrimination, poverty and loss, but it is also the opportunity to embark on the creation and shaping of a new life and a new beginning.

The Effects of Trauma in the Lives of Refugee Women

It is important to understand that many refugee women have had their human rights violated, as most displaced people leave their countries due to war and political turmoil, escaping persecution, repression, torture and death.

During war, women are targeted strategically to devastate the whole community. Rape is used as a physical and psychological weapon that destroys women’s lives and their families’ and humiliates and attacks the community in its core. Women are central figures in family life, so rape actually affects the whole family by bringing shame, rejection, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and physical disabilities. Rape applied systematically to women’s bodies is a way of genocide that ensures the devastation of the survivors and their future generations.

After experiencing rape, many women are rejected by their families or their husbands’ families, facing poverty, homelessness and isolation. They are left alone in total destitution and suffering the psychological and physical consequences of the traumatic experiences they have undergone.

Psychological Consequences of Trauma and PTSD

Trauma may permeate the psychological, physical and social facets of women’s lives.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, is a psychological adaptive response to life-threatening situations, such as those experienced in war and conflicts, natural disasters, rape, domestic violence or accidents.

The confrontation with death has a deep impact on human beings. Terror overwhelms the person and their brain’s capability to process the traumatic event. Normal brain functioning is interrupted, giving place to a more automatic response, led by the amygdala and the hypothalamus, which block the functioning of the frontal cortex and inhibit the hippocampus.

This all means that the cognitive and planning skills are not available for coping with the trauma, and that the memory is dissociated in such a way that the past makes itself present in the person’s life, who re-lives the trauma in the here and now in the form of flashbacks and nightmares.

Avoidance is also linked to PTSD, as those affected by trauma try to keep away from any stimuli that may remind them of it. People, places, and thoughts are evaded in order to escape the thoughts of the traumatic event, with the associated risk of isolation. Emotional turmoil, eating and sleeping difficulties, lack of concentration and physical complaints will add up to the list of symptoms caused by PTSD.

Cultural Bereavement and Complex Grief

Many refugee women will experience, after arriving in the host country, what is known as cultural bereavement, as they are forced to separate from their communities, families, language, culture and everything they knew and were familiar with.

The uprooting is painfully experienced and transforms women’s identities, as they are dispossessed from all the references that gave meaning to their lives and their selves. They have lost their sense of self.

Furthermore, these women are grieving for all they have lost and are at risk of developing pathological forms of mourning due to the impossibility of coping with this unthinkable pain.

Complex grief is the concept used to describe this severe way of human suffering, caused by experiencing or witnessing atrocities that cannot be verbalised and that affects women’s mental health and their ability to deal with life.

Extreme Trauma and the Concept of Soul Death

Trauma can paralyse victims’ lives. For those survivors of extreme violent situations, the scenario can be disconcerting.

They have been touched and damaged in the most inner part of themselves after confronting inhumane evil and feeling the greatest despair. Soul death is a very extreme result of trauma, and it tends to appear in those catastrophes that human beings create.

Natural disasters can be traumatic as well, but do not present the factor of evil that brings the threat of annihilating the soul. In those cases of soul death, the person suffers a psychological collapse that is expressed in an inert and lifeless self. Life has lost its meaning, and an existential crisis takes place.

Recovery is possible with professional help, but for many women, several years are needed in order to regain their lives.

Resilience as a Pathway to Recovery

Is it actually possible to recover from severe traumatic experiences? Are women able to restore their lives?

Resilience is a key concept for answering these questions, as it is understood as the capacity people have to cope with adversity and bounce back. Resilience is not a trait that a person possesses but the result of having secure attachments and belonging to a supportive environment. In this way, resilience and protective environmental factors work together.

A woman who has experienced nurturing and supportive bonds with her family and community and has developed the ability to cope with difficulties and change is a resilient woman who will be able to bounce back from trauma and its effects.

On the contrary, a woman born in a hostile environment or subject to emotional neglect is in a vulnerable position and not able to build that resilience within herself. Here, the protective environmental factors that promote resilience are missing, and vulnerability is reinforced.

If this woman faces trauma in her life, she will be at risk of suffering its severe effects, as she is not psychologically robust enough to cope with such distress. However, she will be able to recover from trauma and its consequences if she can get adequate help.

The Role of Counselling in Recovery

Traumatised refugee women who have received counselling and support were able to start a new life and flourish again in the host country.

They have found, in their therapeutic relationships with their counsellors, those factors that contributed to the rebuilding of their lives.

Counselling is a safe haven where they can initiate the journey of restoring themselves by facilitating the creation of self-esteem, coping mechanisms and resilience. The therapeutic relationship provides women with a secure attachment experience that allows them to discover and accept themselves while developing strategies to recover and heal.

The Four Factors of Resilience in Counselling

The concept of resilience will now be analysed in its four factors to show that counselling helps women recover from trauma and thrive by facilitating the restoration of those resources that trauma has undermined.

The “I Am” Factor: Identity and Self-Concept

The I am factor refers to a woman’s identity and its traits, her self-concept, and her beliefs, which are often negatively affected in refugee women.

Violence has damaged her self-concept, making her feel worthless and confused about who she is. The work in this area focuses on rebuilding her identity by identifying her strengths and weaknesses and promoting acceptance of herself as a valuable woman. With the support of her counsellor, she can develop a positive self-image and new abilities to cope with life. By reshaping her ideas and feelings about who she is, this woman increases her chances of solving problems and changing her life.

Refugee women have been despised in many ways, and finding acceptance in their counsellors can be the first step toward reclaiming their humanity and identity.

The “I Have” Factor: External Resources and Support

The I have factor relates to the resources available to women.

Many refugee women have lost everything before arriving in the host country and are in need of help and support.

Counselling can be the first trustworthy relationship these women experience, giving them the opportunity to develop other relationships that will enrich their lives. The therapeutic relationship, grounded in respect and autonomy, provides a setting in which women can explore how they relate to others and how they wish to do so, allowing them to decide for themselves what is best for their lives.

Counsellors can also refer clients to other agencies or groups where women can receive practical support, such as help with housing, or join refugee gatherings to build friendships. Having supportive relationships increases women’s self-esteem and external resources simultaneously, and counselling is the space where the trust needed for this process is tested, rehearsed, and developed.

The “I Can” Factor: Skills and Abilities

The I can factors refer to the skills and abilities people possess, their intelligence, talents, feelings, and attitudes, which are often eroded in refugee women after trauma has occurred.

Many women feel that they cannot continue living or adapt to the host country because they lack the tools needed to cope with life.

Counselling provides a space for developing autonomy and self-respect, as well as for discovering talents and strengths that broaden coping mechanisms, communication skills, and self-knowledge. Once women recognise what they are capable of, it becomes easier to accept their limitations and ask for help.

The therapeutic relationship may be the place where refugee women first encounter their potential and come to realise it.

The “I Will” Factor: Hope, Agency, and Future Planning

Finally, the I will factor refers to the willingness to engage in activities that help recovery and plan a life.

Thinking about the future and planning recovery can feel very difficult for traumatised women who are stuck in the past. However, psychotherapy can help women regain hope for the future and give them the strength to engage in planning their healing and a new life. The experience of planning future sessions can itself encourage women to think about their future with expectation and trust. Refugee women can find meaning in their lives again within the therapeutic relationship and, consequently, beyond it as well.

They can begin to imagine a new life in the host country while developing possibilities for what they want for themselves.

With the support of their counsellor, they can sketch an action plan that will eventually transform their lives.

Women are now closer to thriving, as they are able to picture themselves in future roles and have gained the skills needed to begin the journey forward.

Counselling Beyond Survival

Counselling helps refugee women survive when they first arrive in the host country in dealing with the symptoms and distress that trauma caused, but its benefits go further.

Counselling facilitates the building of resilience by allowing women to discover their own strengths and abilities in coping with life and with the horrible experiences they have gone through. Women also find in counselling the tool to plan their future days.

Conclusion

Trauma affects refugee women in substantial ways, as they are the main victims of armed conflict and political revolts, are targeted for systematic rape, and are left alone and separated from their families during war.

Trauma and PTSD can tear women’s lives apart, freezing them in the past and invalidating their move towards the future. With professional support, they can start the journey of rebuilding their lives. Counselling empowers women by strengthening their resilience and capacity to cope with the difficulties they face, allowing them to mourn their losses and embrace a new life in the host country.