Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences
Violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the context of war and terrorism has become an increasingly pressing public health issue relevant to refugee children and families. PTSD and related psychopathology in children can adversely affect all domains of development and, in particula...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.940862/full |
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| author | Nastia Junod Nastia Junod Olga Sidiropoulou Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter |
| author_facet | Nastia Junod Nastia Junod Olga Sidiropoulou Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter |
| author_sort | Nastia Junod |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the context of war and terrorism has become an increasingly pressing public health issue relevant to refugee children and families. PTSD and related psychopathology in children can adversely affect all domains of development and, in particular, interfere with learning and socialization. When the experience of violent trauma and related loss is shared with the entire family, resulting impairment and distress may prevent caregivers from being psychologically available to process their traumatized children’s emotional communication and otherwise meet their children’s developmental needs. When children suffer from PTSD, it may be impossible to put their experience and related thoughts and feelings into words, let alone a coherent narrative. The latter difficulty can be even more pronounced when the child displays dissociative symptoms, possibly signaling a dissociative subtype of PTSD. Thus, the narrative within the child’s play during psychotherapy becomes all the more important as an indicator of the child’s internal world. This case report is an example both of evaluation and of psychotherapy that is both psychodynamic and trauma-informed with a 10-year-old Afghani boy who suffered the violent loss of his father at age of 3 years, leading to his immigration to Switzerland. This paper addresses the question of how the psychotherapist can accompany the child through the elaboration of his trauma and how the therapist can contribute to the co-construction of a coherent narrative of the child’s experience and to the restoration of an intersubjective connection between the traumatized child and caregiver. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:11:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-636ad127ff0645d9b0e40b6c0cba6e07 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:11:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-636ad127ff0645d9b0e40b6c0cba6e072023-03-16T08:26:07ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402022-07-011310.3389/fpsyt.2022.940862940862Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absencesNastia Junod0Nastia Junod1Olga Sidiropoulou2Daniel S. Schechter3Daniel S. Schechter4Daniel S. Schechter5Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne, SwitzerlandChild and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, SwitzerlandChild and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United StatesViolence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the context of war and terrorism has become an increasingly pressing public health issue relevant to refugee children and families. PTSD and related psychopathology in children can adversely affect all domains of development and, in particular, interfere with learning and socialization. When the experience of violent trauma and related loss is shared with the entire family, resulting impairment and distress may prevent caregivers from being psychologically available to process their traumatized children’s emotional communication and otherwise meet their children’s developmental needs. When children suffer from PTSD, it may be impossible to put their experience and related thoughts and feelings into words, let alone a coherent narrative. The latter difficulty can be even more pronounced when the child displays dissociative symptoms, possibly signaling a dissociative subtype of PTSD. Thus, the narrative within the child’s play during psychotherapy becomes all the more important as an indicator of the child’s internal world. This case report is an example both of evaluation and of psychotherapy that is both psychodynamic and trauma-informed with a 10-year-old Afghani boy who suffered the violent loss of his father at age of 3 years, leading to his immigration to Switzerland. This paper addresses the question of how the psychotherapist can accompany the child through the elaboration of his trauma and how the therapist can contribute to the co-construction of a coherent narrative of the child’s experience and to the restoration of an intersubjective connection between the traumatized child and caregiver.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.940862/fullpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)dissociationrefugee mental healthpsychotherapypost-traumatic playintersubjectivity |
| spellingShingle | Nastia Junod Nastia Junod Olga Sidiropoulou Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter Daniel S. Schechter Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences Frontiers in Psychiatry post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dissociation refugee mental health psychotherapy post-traumatic play intersubjectivity |
| title | Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| title_full | Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| title_fullStr | Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| title_short | Case Report: Psychotherapy of a 10-year-old Afghani refugee with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| title_sort | case report psychotherapy of a 10 year old afghani refugee with post traumatic stress disorder and dissociative absences |
| topic | post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dissociation refugee mental health psychotherapy post-traumatic play intersubjectivity |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.940862/full |
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