Trauma Psycho Social Support Plus® and EMDR therapy for children and adolescents in a post-conflict setting: Mental health training in Kurdistan

Abstract: Being confronted with the alarming situation in countries like Iraq and Syria – areas shaped by war, of people having lost their homes and suffering from horrible experiences - TraumaAid has designed and conducted a training program, especially for health workers in refugee camps. Clearly the intervention would have to adjust to specific circumstances; it would need a method adapted to another language and culture, an approach that could be used in a not-yet-secure situation with an undetermined number of sessions with every client. Resilience is an important aspect enabling people who suffered from different traumata to resume an everyday life again. Resource installation is a basic technique in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which intensifies an integral awareness of individual resources for the client. As easy as this method may seem, a careful priming for its actual use is required. A profound understanding of how a traumatic experience affects body, thoughts and emotions is needed as background knowledge. Moreover qualified skills concerning the interaction with children are needed to be able to establish a trustful relationship in the first place. The following article describes a pilot project in Kurdistan / Northern Iraq - a training for psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals working in different refugee camps. The aim was to provide the staff members with background knowledge of the dynamics of traumatization and teach them how to use resource installation in a responsible way to work with children, adolescents and their parents.&nbsp