Traumatic experiences and somatization are related in studies on complex trauma, though this relation is rarely studied in immigrants. The relationship between somatization and self-reported traumatic experiences and posttraumatic symptoms in patients attending a primary care service for immigrants was studied. The sample consisted of 101 patients attending a primary healthcare service dedicated to immigrants. Participants completed two self-assessment questionnaires specifically designed for use in transcultural research: the Bradford Somatic Inventory and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Both were translated and back-translated into eight languages. Somatization was significantly related to traumatic events and posttraumatic symptoms. In primary care centers for immigrants, physicians should give particular attention to somatization as a possible sign of unreported posttraumatic symptoms.

No abstract

This article presents a model for interpreting migration, a phenomenon that involves the relocation of a large group of people from their homeland and native culture to another place, an event that is usually experienced as traumatic. The author describes factors of resilience and vulnerability that affect the psychic health of immigrants and, in particular, the effects that these have on refugee populations. Due to the events that determined their migration, refugees are particularly at risk for psychotraumatological pathologies, and migration can have a retraumatizing effect. The specific psychopathological problems of traumatized refugees—in particular, those who have survived torture—are described from a transactional analytic perspective along with indications for the psychosocial management of their difficulties.

This study is the first of a series of three, and represents an Italian systematic replication of previous UK findings (Widdowson 2012a(Widdowson , 2012b(Widdowson , 2012c(Widdowson , 2013) that investigated the effectiveness of a recently manualised transactional analysis treatment for depression with British clients, using Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED). The various stages of HSCED as a systematic case study research method are described, as a quasi-judicial method to sift case evidence in which researchers construct opposing arguments around quantitative and qualitative multiple source evidences and judges evaluate these for and against propositions to conclude whether the client changed substantially over the course of therapy and that the outcome was attributable to the therapy. The therapist in this case was a white Italian woman with 10 years clinical experience and the client, Sara, was a 62-year old white Italian woman with moderate depression and three recent bereavements, who attended sixteen sessions of transactional analysis therapy. The diagnosis is based on the new DSM-5 criteria that allow differentiation between Depression and Bereavement. The conclusion of the judges was that this was a good-outcome case: the client improved early over the course of the therapy, reported positive experience of therapy and maintained the improvement at the end of the follow-up.

The author discusses the distinctive features of transactional analysis supervision and presents an operational model based, in part, on the checklist proposed by Clarkson (1992) for evaluating supervision sessions. Clarkson's model was modified by the author, who defines seven aspects of supervision: (1) a clear and appropriate contract, (2) identification of key issues, (3) effective emotional contact with the trainee, (4) protection of both trainee and client, (5) increasing developmental directions, (6) awareness and effective use of parallel process, and (7) an equal relationship between supervisor and supervisee. The characteristics of the seven elements are discussed for each of the three development stages of training (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and are integrated with Erskine's (1982) developmental supervision model.