Systemic Challenges in a Refugee Camp

Systemic therapists work in many different settings and face varied challenges. What I will try to outline here are some of my experiences in working in a large refugee camp in Africa and some of the challenges I face there. Although not many situations encountered there would be of direct relevance to therapists working in more traditional settings, nevertheless, I believe that many of the issues that I will address below can be related to most of the challenges we face, whatever our work setting may be. Moreover, I would argue that working in different settings may help us to sharpen and deepen our understanding of systemic principles which tend to become imprecise within the context of too familiar and predictable work settings.