The Power of Groupwork with Refugees

For some time now, my head has been full of the many diverse and creative ways that groups can support and resource refugees and survivors of human rights abuses. This week, I was reminded in a very direct way of the power of groupwork.

As we approached the end of our assessment, myself and Armineh, an Afghan client, explored together what we’d learnt during the assessment process. Unusually for my service, the sessions had been online because we didn’t have an interpreter speaking Pashtu locally. Armineh had been disappointed we couldn’t meet face to face, as she described feeling very isolated. She had been in the UK for 12 months, having been evacuated from Kabul in 2021. She had stayed in a bridging hotel for six months and then moved to a house in South Yorkshire with her husband and six children.

Armineh said she was lonely. Her husband was out most of the time and the children were settling well at school, but her days felt long and empty. She described feeling safe, but lost, missing the women in her family and the constant activity within her home in Afghanistan. She had so many questions about the UK, and felt confused about what her future life would look like. She said she was beginning to feel low, and had struggled with depression in the past and so she knew the signs.

It became clear that it was hard for Armineh to say that counselling wasn’t what she needed. What she wanted was to be alongside other women with similar struggles and questions.

When I asked if she would like to join a women’s group, she was immediately enthusiastic. It was the first time I heard any energy in her voice since we first met. We agreed I would link her up with the small wellbeing team at the Refugee Council who do community work and offer different groups and activities. As we ended the call, she said she felt a little more hope knowing that there would be an opportunity to connect with other women.

That same week, for the first time in many years, I was a group member myself, having recently started a training course. At the end of the third day, I listened as group members voiced some of their struggles in trying out unfamiliar interventions and applying new theory. It helped me to hear that others were struggling to find their way, or also feeling de-skilled, reminding me that it was a normal response. It was comforting and I remembered the power of struggling together during a shared endeavour.

Armineh needed the collectivising process of sharing her struggles and feelings with women in the same situation, women trying to adjust to the huge changes in their lives, as well as grieve their many losses. She wanted to be active and creative, as well as make new friends. She needed to hear from others that her responses are normal and shared by others. She wanted to learn from others what helps them, as well as be able to offer support to other women, to feel useful again. She wanted to have a space in the week, where she felt connected and part of a community.

I have just published an edited collection on groupwork with refugees with three colleagues in the refugee therapy field. Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses: The Power of Togetherness is not an academic publication, and aims to be accessible and practically helpful in a variety of contexts. Anyone interested can read it for free here via Open Access.