Family Systems and Global Humanitarian Mental Health - Approaches in the Field

This powerful reference explores the processes and practices of family systems therapy as conducted in humanitarian situations across the globe. It follows the editors' previous volume Family Therapy in Global Humanitarian Contexts: Voices and Issues from the Field in defining systemic therapy as multidisciplinary, portable, and universal, regardless of how far from traditional clinical settings it is applied. Chapters from diverse locales document remarkable examples of courage and resilience on the part of therapists as well as clients in the face of war, unjust policies, extreme inequities, and natural disasters. Contributors describe choosing and implementing interventions to fit both complex immediate challenges and their local contexts as they work to provide systemic family and public mental health services, including:

• Assisting families of missing persons in Cyprus
  
• Emergency counseling after a Florida school shooting 
  
• Therapeutic metaphors in a Lebanese refugee camp
  
• Sessions with separated family members on the U.S./Mexico border
  
• Addressing healthcare disparities in the Caribbean
  
• Training family therapists in Sri Lanka
  
• Family and community support during the Ebola epidemic in Guinea
  
• Providing systemically oriented therapy and supervision in high-conflict countries
  
• Risk assessment using emerging media in Chilean communities
  

Family Systems and Global Humanitarian Mental Health: Approaches in the Field is a valuable resource for professionals in both the global North and South, including family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and public health professionals, and mental health and psychosocial support providers working in humanitarian settings.


Laurie L. Charlés, PhD, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and qualitative researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.) She is a faculty instructor and former director of the MFT program at Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, USA, and recent subject matter expert in family therapy with two psychotherapeutic interventions courses sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), and as a WHO Mental Health Officer during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2015. Focused on scaling up family therapy practices for host country nationals in fragile states, Dr Charlés' work as a scholar and practitioner includes the performance of qualitative rapid needs assessments & the supervision and training of psychiatrists, psychosocial workers, and family therapists for family therapy and psychosocial support programs in low and middle income countries. Dr Charlés has both a PhD in Family Therapy from Nova Southeastern University and a M.A. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her publications have appeared in Family Process, the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the Journal of Family Therapy, Qualitative Inquiry, and Boston Globe Magazine. She is a 2017-2018 Fulbright Global Scholar.
Gameela Samarasinghe, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist by training and is an Associate Professor in Psychology in the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She initiated the design of and introduced the Postgraduate Diploma and Master's in Counselling and Psychosocial Support at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo. These postgraduate programs try to provoke thinking on alternative visions of what support to individuals and communities might look like while at the same time providing training on conventional counselling skills. She is the Coordinator of both programs. She has been a member of various advisory groups developing strategies for post-conflict trauma in Sri Lanka and internationally. These include her role as Technical Advisor to the Asia Foundation's Reducing the Effects and Incidents of Trauma (RESIST) Program and to the Victims of Trauma Treatment Program (VTTP), which are programs designed to support and treat torture survivors. She was a member of the international research team on 'Trauma, Peace building and Development', run from the University of Ulster. She has written extensively on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in Sri Lanka. She has been awarded many fellowships and has been the recipient of research grants including the Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Scholar Award (2004 - 2005) at Boston University and the Fulbright Advanced Research Award (2013 - 2014) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.