Abstract

Pre-school aged refugee children are at a higher risk for sustained traumatic grief, in which childhood trauma symptoms intrude on a child's ability to bereave their multiple losses. A transcultural and developmental approach provides a framework for understanding the multiple issues of pre-trauma, trauma, and host country integration that challenge refugee children and their families. An instrumental case study methodology is used in order to integrate these theories and capture the complexity of issues of one young refugee child referred to art therapy due to post-traumatic stress symptoms. Through case session descriptions and qualitative analysis of the resulting themes, this case study seeks to explore how this child expresses cultural bereavement, trauma, and grief in his art and play expressions. As well, the case will explore the ways that art therapy can help children experiencing traumatic grief re-engage developmental coping strategies in order to work through grief and trauma symptoms. The findings from this analysis will demonstrate how 'anchor points' of a child's traumatic memories express themselves in verbalizations, repetitive images, traumatic play, and how these are entry points for the therapist to work with in therapy through art and play. Through creating a warm therapeutic alliance, with engaged and sustained reciprocal communication, this case demonstrates how art therapy can help re-engage a child's capacity to communicate symbolically through art and play in order to integrate losses and grief into a growing self-concept.