Published: October 2023

Keywords:
Refugees, unaccompanied minors, psychosocial support, Power Threat Meaning Framework.

Irene Moutsou

Doctoral Student, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece; E-mail: emoutsou@psy.auth.gr. ORCID: 0000-0002-0273-7909

Eugenie Georgaca

Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece; Tel: +30 2310 997472. Fax: +30 2310 997384. E-mail: georgaca@psy.auth.gr. ORCID: 0000-0002-5904-2534

Gareth Morgan

Academic Director, Clinical Psychology, George Davies Centre, University of Leicester, Lancaster Rd, Leicester LE1 7HA, U.K.; E-mail: gsm23@leicester.ac.uk. ORCID: 0000-0001-7177-8897

Abstract

In recent years, the numbers of unaccompanied minors have significantly increased all over the world. Concerns have been expressed that traditional Western mental health services are not well-suited to meeting the needs of this population due to the nature of pre-, peri- and post-migratory adversities faced. Nevertheless, Western diagnoses and therapies remain frequently used, often without critical reflection on cultural appropriateness. Furthermore, it seems that broader psychosocial support services are understudied compared to psychotherapy, although a great number of unaccompanied minors receive such services in the host countries. The Power Threat Meaning Framework offers a holistic understanding of distress and we believe that it may be a useful lens for understanding the experience of unaccompanied minors, supporting access to psychosocial support services. In this article, we present how we have applied the Power Threat Meaning Framework in a series of supportive sessions with unaccompanied minors. Moreover, we present a case example from our research and discuss our ideas regarding the usefulness of these sessions as well as implications for further improvement.