Of Bombs and Bonds: Healing the War-Fractured Internally Displaced Families through Therapy

Abstract

The article examines the relationship dynamics among families who were uprooted from their traditional communities because of conflict in Marawi City in the southern Philippines. The study specifically explores the areas of family communication, family intimacy, and family conflict domains in households of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Data were drawn from 266 IDP marital couples through an assisted survey. Through statistical comparisons, the study was able to establish that the frequency and quality of communication and intimacy patterns fell while family conflict increased. A t-Test also indicates the decreased trajectory of the quality of familial relationship in displacement compared to prior displacement. These results underpin the fact that war harms family harmony. The study argues that the government, through their social welfare offices, being at the forefront of social care intervention, should consider providing family therapy as a specific assistance to IDPs. More than ensuring a strengthened family bond, the benefit of undergoing family therapy is vital because it may have implications for the pace by which IDP families build back better. Future studies may explore the effectiveness of family therapy intervention to strengthen its place in the social services arena in the context of internal displacement.