Perspectives of Short-term Psychotherapy with Asylum Seekers. Preliminary Commentary On “mobile Psychotherapy” Project (lower Austria).

Abstract

The rising number of military conflicts worldwide cause an increase in the influx of asylum seekers to Western Europe, Austria included. The Austrian Interior Ministry predicts that the number of asylum seekers in 2014 will reach 26 000 people compared to 17 500 in 2013, an increase of almost 50 %. This rising tendency will in all probability continue. Asylum seekers from Russia (Chechnia) are the second largest group of refugees. Asylum seekers left their home countries when they turned into devouring Chronos who eats his children. Having fled from perdition they find themselves vulnerable in a foreign language-cultural matrix. This is difficult to cope with to highly traumatized people. Psychotherapy in their mother tongue or one that is familiar to them constitutes emergency support and is of utmost importance for this group. This paper will focus on the preliminary results of the 'Mobile Psychotherapie fur sozial Bedurftige in Niederosterreich” project, conducted in Lower Austria, in which the author participates as a psychotherapist. The aims are to evaluate in the mid-treatment phase what helps the patients who participated in this project and why and how it helped. The evaluation is done with the help of Client Change Interview (Elliott), 5 patients take part in this qualitative research. Results are reflected using psychoanalytic approach with the focus on the process and psychotherapeutic relationship.