Therapeutic Strategies and Strategies for Refugee Coping

In order to cope with their life in transit and exile, refugees have to learn not only how to reduce the stress which results from disruption in their way of life, but also how to come to terms with relief programmes set up to help them. The refugees regard therapeutic intervention as a threat, since a diagnosis may have dramatic consequencies for their future. Silence and withdrawal seem safer strategies than talk and self revelation. Paradoxically, the relief workers' therapeutic strategies, while decreasing their own stress, may serve to intensify that of the refugees.