The inaudible bereaved: a critical narrative analysis of the voices of bereaved Syrian refugees in the UK
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- Title
- The inaudible bereaved: a critical narrative analysis of the voices of bereaved Syrian refugees in the UK
- Creator
- Meherangiz Press
- Supervisor
- Dr Elaine Kasket.
- Date
- 2019
- Abstract
- As the UK prepares to welcome 20.000 Syrian refugees by 2020, mental health and care services must tailor themselves to their growing needs. One such unfulfilled need is bereavement care. Yet, little is known about the unique quality of their grief, as various discourses around the refugee crisis have drowned out the voice of the individual Syrian refugee. This qualitative research studies this experience of bereavement, using a critical realist, social constructionist Critical Narrative Analysis, directly through the voice of the individual bereaved Syrian refugee in the UK. Five male Syrian refugees were asked twice, over four months, to narrate the story of their bereavements. An Arabic-speaking interpreter was employed to avoid excluding non-English speaking participants. The themes privileged by all participants were constructed as: A focus on the living rather than the dead; a sense of shock and pain; transcending the limitations of language; the frame of the decision making process of leaving Syria; an ""in-between"" position with respect to powerful others, space and time; and individual meaning-making, which diverged across participants in the narrative spaces outside the intersections of the common themes. The narratives were additionally interrogated through Bhabha's postcolonial concepts of Hybridity, Liminality and Doubling, which revealed new possibilities for agency. Clinical implications of the findings include considerations regarding access to and engagement in therapy, formulation and therapeutic planning, such as recognising General Practitioners as the first point of therapeutic access; awareness of colonialism in the therapeutic space; using meaning-oriented formulations; the importance of advocacy and community involvement; and working with client strengths, among other recommendations. Research implications describe the value of epistemological pluralism, methodological flexibility, and sharing of power in the research process. These implications speak to the social justice agenda of counselling psychology, and the humanistic, social constructionist values enshrined in the field. The research concludes with a call to heed the personal, contextual and political dimensions of the participants' grief, and to continue this conversation by beginning to listen to their voice.
- Subject
- Psychotherapy and Counselling
- Extent
- 179 pages ; 23 cm
- Format
- Publisher
- Regent's University London
- degree
- PhD in Psychotherapy and Counselling
- Description
- EThOS ID: 787330"
- Language
- English
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Rights Holder
- Regent's University London & Meherangiz Press
- Item sets
- Theses or Dissertation