Jon Jureidini
Child Psychiatrist and Professor
School of Medicine, University of Adelaide
Holly Cutcher
Child and Adolescent Counsellor
STARTTS
Jorge Aroche
CEO, Clinical Psychologist, Facilitator
STARTTS
Certificate of Completion
To be issued with a Certificate of Completion you need to view the recordings by clicking on the modules listed under ‘Course Content’ below. You will need to watch the recordings in full to be issued with a certificate. If you prefer to watch individual recordings only, then click on the links for the individual recordings in the ‘Course Description’ below.
Course Description
Children from refugee backgrounds living in Australia have usually survived a multitude of traumatic experiences and significant losses in their country of origin or while they are fleeing. Exposed to war, persecution, extreme deprivation and sometimes torture; it is common for children from refugee backgrounds to experience the violent death of one or both parents, to witness friends and close relatives being killed or injured; and to suffer extreme poverty, starvation, physical injuries, and disabilities. Some children are born in prisons or conceived in prison because of the rape of their mothers; others are raised in an orphanage or other residential care. Subsequently they are prone to post traumatic stress disorder and other psychological problems. Some may have complex presentations including complex PTSD.
Recording 1: Dr Jon Jureidini explored how to tolerate and respect young people’s distress. There is strong encouragement to consider such distress as illness or disorder, so that parents, therapists, and teachers are prone to label and intervene rather than sit with distressing feelings. We do better to trust children’s capacity to survive and benefit from strong uncomfortable feelings; be more respectful of the time and space that is required to do so; and tolerate and manage the anxiety we experience through not intervening. In providing scaffolding to see young people through their distress, the meaning of their experience will often emerge, ‘without any irritable reaching after fact and reason’. Recording link: https://youtu.be/tIDC46btTdQ
Recording 2: Holly Cutcher, a STARTTS Child and Adolescent Counsellor, shared an example of engagement and early therapeutic work through a case study of a young boy whose experience of prolonged exposure to war and flight from his home country took place against a pre-existing foundation of abuse, early abandonment, and complex grief. Her case study highlighted some of the challenges of engaging and containing the surrounding system and finding a space for attunement and connection amidst internal and external environments of deprivation and chaos. Recording link: https://youtu.be/5eIgKt0fS_M
Recording 3: The Q&A panel discussion is facilitated by STARTTS’ CEO and Clinical Psychologist, Jorge Aroche. Recording link: https://youtu.be/wpVYOzKTL4Y
This webinar was recorded on 17 July 2023. © STARTTS
Duration: 75 minutes.