Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Migrant women's negotiation of belonging through therapeutic relationships
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Social and Psychological Studies (from 2013). Värmland County Council, Karlstad, Sweden..ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1426-945x
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
2018 (English)In: International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, ISSN 1747-9894, E-ISSN 2042-8650, Vol. 14, no 1, p. 41-54Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore experiences and emotions of migrant women, who have been in psychotherapy in Sweden, their motives and experience of being treated in psychotherapy. The authors argue that not only traumas of the past but also social suffering in the post-migratory phase contribute to what brought them in contact with psychiatric care. Design/methodology/approach Narrative interviews with 12 migrant women, holding permanent residence permits, were conducted. The interviews were loosely structured around themes such as the experience of migration, of everyday living in Sweden, experiences of Swedish psychiatric care, and reflections and understandings of mental and physical health/ill health. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically using abductive qualitative text analysis. Findings In the narratives an overarching motive for seeking out psychiatric help is the search for belonging and restoring a cohesive sense of self. Belonging is sought both in symbolic terms - formal access and right to health care - and in a deeper emotional sense as the therapist becomes a local adviser. The therapeutic encounter meets the human desire to be seen and confirmed as the person you are, and need to be, in the new host society. Meanwhile, psychotherapy as a way to negotiate belonging is also a risky endeavor, as the idealized view of the therapeutic relation may be disappointed. Research limitations/implications This study provides the interviewed migrant women's perception of the psychotherapeutic relationship. Yet this relationship needs to be elaborated from different perspectives to improve understanding of psychotherapy in psychiatric care. Originality/value The paper fills a gap in research concerning the dominance of the psychiatric discourse over subjective understandings of health and illness, and how this relates to emotions of social suffering in the case of migrant women.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2018. Vol. 14, no 1, p. 41-54
Keywords [en]
s Belonging, Emotions, Social bonds, Migrant women, Psychiatric care, Social suffering
National Category
Health Sciences Sociology
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-66782DOI: 10.1108/IJMHSC-12-2016-0043ISI: 000426531700004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-66782DiVA, id: diva2:1192507
Available from: 2018-03-22 Created: 2018-03-22 Last updated: 2022-11-25Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Speaking about social suffering?: Subjective understandings and lived experiences of migrant women and therapists
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Speaking about social suffering?: Subjective understandings and lived experiences of migrant women and therapists
2016 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis aims to investigate and illuminate lived experiences, cultural representations, and organizational conditions that influence the way therapists in Swedish psychiatry receive and treat migrant women. This overall aim is pursued through two distinct but interlinked part-studies. The aim of the first of these is to examine migrant women’s perceptions of mental (ill-) health along with their actual experiences of therapy in Swedish psychiatry. The aim of the second part is to describe and explain how therapists, in their organizational work conditions, interpret and experience their professional encounters with migrant women.  

The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with twelve migrant women and eleven therapists in psychiatry.

The result show that the migrant women experience health and mental health through a sense of belonging. Non-belonging, isolation and estrangement will point to the other direction i.e. not having health. The migrant women may gain a sense of belonging to society through therapy. However there are also obstructions on this path to belonging.

The therapists, in psychiatry, seeing migrant women are doing emotion work comparable to physical labor. As the production is expected to increase due to marketing principles it puts a demand of acceleration on the therapists emotion work. They, thus have to find strategies to manage their emotion work. Everyday resistance thus becomes a way to gain emotional energy and to avoid emotional numbing and burnout. It is also gives openings to be content with their work with their patients and thereby to be able to offer an adequate reception of migrants into treatment in psychiatry.

The thesis contributes to the gap in research by focusing on the borderlands between migrant women’s lived experiences of social suffering and the receiving therapists’ possibility to meet their migrant patients’ request.

Abstract [en]

This thesis aims to investigate and illuminate lived experience and organizational conditions that influence the way therapists in Swedish psychiatry receive and treat migrant women. This overall aim is divided into two separate but interlinked part-studies. The main body of the thesis is based on interviews with migrant women as well as therapists in psychiatry. The result show that the migrant women are searching for belonging in the host society. One way of searching for belonging is through therapy in psychiatry. However the work pace in health care and psychiatry is increasing and the therapists are struggling with giving a decent reception of migrants. In order to manage the heavy emotion work the therapists oppose the accelerating work pace by doing resistance in their everyday work. This thesis contributes to gap in research on the borderlands between lived experiences of social suffering odf migrant women as well as the lived experiences of the work conditions that make it possible to care for another person

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstad: Karlstads universitet, 2016. p. 122
Series
Karlstad University Studies, ISSN 1403-8099 ; 2016:52
Keywords
migrant women, social suffering, belonging, emotions, health therapist psychiatry, emotion work, everyday resistance
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-47269 (URN)978-91-7063-737-7 (ISBN)
Public defence
2017-01-13, 11 D 121, Andersalen, Karlstad, 13:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

Article No 4 was still in manuscript form at the time of the defense.

Available from: 2016-12-22 Created: 2016-11-23 Last updated: 2019-10-21Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Lindqvist, Mona

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Lindqvist, Mona
By organisation
Department of Social and Psychological Studies (from 2013)
In the same journal
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
Health SciencesSociology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 318 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf