Hitting Home: Irish Identity and Psychotherapy in The UK

Abstract

We examine the work of icap, a clinic for Irish people in Britain, to describe an (Irish) idea of ‘home’ within a psychoanalytic/group‐analytic discourse, and some aspects of its clinical significance in providing culturally‐sensitive psychotherapy. Our work weaves through four axes of trauma: the dislocation embedded in all migration, irrespective of the social or economic circumstances of the migrant; the long domination of Ireland by England, and some of the resulting complexities in Irish migration to Britain; childhood abuse, within the ‘home’ and within the Church‐run institutions sanctioned by the Irish state; and childhood neglect and deprivation. In clinical practice these levels interpenetrate and interact with each other. Early trauma followed by migration impacts on the patient's internalized ‘home’; culturally‐specific loss and yearning are then central to the creation and maintenance of identity, and linked to narratives of ‘home’. In trauma ‘home’ can become frozen in an idealized and/or terrorized state, whereas the creation of a healthy internalized ‘home’ depends on a creative fluidity, a need intensified when actual departure from the home country requires identity adjustment. We touch on the significance of the physical body and external ‘home’. Composite case studies illustrate these clinical themes.

On the Road to Resilience: The Help‐Seeking Experiences of Irish Emigrant Survivors of Institutional Abuse

“…One aspect of icap's efficacy with those who do take up therapeutic services is the experience of the agency as not institutional but ‘homely’ (Thornton and Corbett, , p. 300) – a good home . It can be observed too in other agencies that work effectively with survivors, such as the Aislinn Educational Centre in Dublin.…”

“…It can be observed too in other agencies that work effectively with survivors, such as the Aislinn Educational Centre in Dublin. One crucial aspect of the good ‘home’ is that it is populated with positive attachment figures (Thornton and Corbett, ). For those whose childhood has been populated with abusive authority figures, this offers possibilities, but also raises anxiety.…”

Editorial

“…We also have to say farewell to Geraldine Ryan, a longstanding and much‐valued member of the Journal's Editorial Board and representative of the Arbours Association, who has retired in order to make time available for her work as Clinical Director of Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy (cf. Thornton and Corbett, ). We welcome Emma Letley in her place as Arbours representative – a welcome back, in her case, as she begins her second term of office on the Board.…”