Flexibility, creativity and responsiveness in trauma counselling: Working with refugees and asylum-seekers

Refugees, Asylum seekers, Counselling, Trauma, Resilience, Culture, Client-focussed approach

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• Teresa Puvimanasinghe
• Linley A Denson
• Martha Augoustinos
• Daya Somasundaram
  University of Adelaide South Australia

Author biographies

Dr. Teresa Puvimanasinghe, BA Hons, PhD,  completed her doctoral studies at the School of Psychology, University of Adelaide in 2015. Her research interests include cross-cultural psychology, migrant and refugee mental health, and trauma informed practice. She is currently Research Associate to an Australian Research Council funded project investigating refugee youth transition from school, to further education, training and employment at the University of South Australia. 

Dr Linley Denson MPsych, PhD, is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Adelaide and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Her research interests are in clinical and health psychology, ageing and health service usage. Previously, she was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, where she coordinated the Clinical Psychology program.

Prof. Martha Augoustinos, BA Hons, PhD, is the Director of the Social and Organisational Unit and a Professor of psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide. Her research interests are in social psychology and discourse. Her published works focus on racial discourse, and more recently on majority group representations of asylum seekers and refugees. She is co-author of Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction with Iain Walker and Ngaire Donaghue (2014, Sage).

Prof. Daya Somasundaram, MD, FRCPsych, FRANZCP was a senior Professor of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, and a Consultant Psychiatrist working in northern Sri Lanka for over three decades. He has worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist at Glenside Hospital and Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS) in Adelaide and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide. He has functioned as co-chair of the subcommittee on PTSD under the WHO working group on stress-related disorders during the ICD-11 revision process.  His research and publications have mainly concentrated on the psychological effects of disasters, both man-made wars and natural tsunami, and the treatment of such effects. Currently, he is co-chair of the Task Force on Psychosocial Support, Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), and on the UN mandated Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms in Sri Lanka.