Psychodynamically informed treatment for trauma in the context of refugee crises and political violence

Abstract This chapter presents a psychodynamically informed treatment for trauma-related disorders that has proven efficacious in treating refugees as well as traumatized clients in postconflict settings. The approach (known for short as ROTATE) combines resource-oriented trauma therapy with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing focusing on resource development and installation. ROTATE is a brief, culturally adaptable, manualized intervention that puts special emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, stabilization, emotion regulation, strengthening resources, dealing with dissociative states, and possible transference–countertransference reactions in the context of trauma. The chapter highlights the basic treatment principles of ROTATE and illustrates various techniques by providing verbatim examples of therapeutic interventions. ROTATE does not contain any form of trauma confrontation and can be taught to professionals, paraprofessionals, and trauma-informed peers who have received basic training in psychotraumatology and related topics. The use of peers may help to overcome cultural and language barriers that are known to be a problem in current western health systems.