A Family-Centered Approach to Working with Refugee Children and Adolescents

Circles of care

“…For more than a decade, ARQ Centrum'45 has offered MFT, adapted specifically for high-risk refugee families. Many refugee parents state that the accumulation of stressful life events has led to a depletion of resources and that previous coping strategies may no longer serve them in their current situation (Mooren & Bala, 2020). MFT at ARQ Centrum'45 aims to enhance resilience, coping strategies, the ability to mentalize, and emotion regulation.…”

“…Working with several refugee families at once offers opportunities to enhance mutual support and to minimize feelings of isolation and stigmatization (Mooren & Bala, 2020). An adaptation of this MFT-program is Family Empowerment (FAME), a secondary preventive program for families living at asylum centres.…”

“…Recommendations for Clinical Practice. FAME and the multimodal trauma-focused treatment approach have been developed based on explorations with refugee families Mooren et al, 2020) and URMs (Sleijpen et al, 2017b; and years of knowledge and experience working with these populations. This offers a starting point from which we can further explore -what works and what does not?…”