| Professor Silke Birgitta Gahleitner |
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| Growing up with German and Israeli parents who lived through the disasters of the National Socialism – Explorations of identity issues (since 2008) |
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Research on types of reminiscing as well as memories of victims of the Nazi Regime among German and Israeli citizens who survived National Socialism has increased in recent years. However, some aspects of the impact the Nazi regime on sons or daughters of Germans and Israelis who lived through the era still remain to be explored. |
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The purpose of the project is to contribute towards filling some gaps in the current state of the art. The intention is also to foster scientific collaboration and address some problems pertinent to both cultures and the field of social work. We aim to explore subjects' experiences of growing up with German and Israeli parents who lived through the dramatic conditions under National Socialism. |
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Specifically, we are interested in identifying attachment patterns, self-concepts, adopted values and indices of psychological well-being among our informants. Both in-depth interviews and self-report questionnaires will be utilized for data collection. This study is designed to be gender-specific and will seek to compare previously unstudied experiences of German and Israeli individuals whose parents lived through the genocidal dictatorship. |
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| A Comparative Analysis of Community Focused Initiatives Aimed at Supporting Women, Children and Young People Who Have Been the Fokus of Violence, Exploitation or Trafficing in three regions of the United Kingdom, Germany and Romania (2009-2011) |
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The project brings together partners from three European Union countries - Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom. The intention is to examine community-based initiatives designed to respond to the needs of women, children and young people who have been the victims of violence, exploitation or trafficing. |
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Through the adoption of an advocacy approach the research project is designed to proactively promote the voices of service users in order to gain a clearer understanding of their needs, expectations and demands of victim support services. A further element of the work is concerned with scoping existing initiatives in partner areas and using this information to identify patterns of provision, together with gaps in services and barriers to access for specific groups and individuals. Consideration will also be given to the effectiveness of multi-agency approaches. The project will seek to examine whether lessons can be learned from existing models of good practice and if these can be generalised to provide overarching principles for the development of more effective policy and practice. |
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A specific output from the project will be the production of case study materials that can be disseminated for inter-professional and inter-agency training purposes. It is intended that research outputs will be used to assist in developing the direction of future work. At the heart of the project is the intention to support Daphne III's aims to promote the 'positive treatment', 'well-being', equality and 'self-fulfilment' of those who are the victims of violence, exploitation and trafficing. |
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Publications:
Tucker, Stan, Martyn, Madeline, Bejenaru, Anca, Brotherton, Graham, Gahleitner, Silke Birgitta, Gunderson, Connie Lee & Rusu, Horatiu (2011). Violence, exploitation and trafficking: Service user perspectives. Daphne Project III. Birmingham, UK: Newman University College. Online available: https://www.newman.ac.uk/files/w3/Research/pdf/DAPHNE%202009-10%20E%20version.pdf [22.08.2011] |
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| Catamnesis survey – Therapeutic residential youth groups in Berlin (2007-2009) |
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Adolescents who are in need of settling in a TWG ("therapeutische Jugendwohngemeinschaft"; a therapeutic residential youth group) usually suffer under manifest behavioral syndromes and/or psychiatric disorders that are caused by their historical background. This includes severe traumas, bonding disorders, personality disorders, neuroses, psychoses, eating disorders, self-inflicted injuries, addiction, social disorders etc. These adolescents are not only in need of educational help and social support by psychologists and therapists but are also legally entitled to receive this help. |
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The major difference between usual flat-sharing communities for adolescents and therapeutic residential youth groups does not lie in a stay that is supported over a longer amount of time but a basically different quality of help. Support includes a professionally applied understanding of clinical pictures, vulnerability, dynamics as well as the ability and scope of adolescents via the interdisciplinary support-team. |
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This study should display the combination of approaches - concerning both quality and quantity - and half-structured interviews on the one hand, and quality-assuring surveys and test procedures on the other hand. With this modus operandi one is able to have a wider look at the topic (top-down and bottom-up). The triangulation of results offers the possibility to explain the results as good as possible, discuss ideas and approaches that are based on these results and develop new questions and answers. |
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Publications:
Gahleitner, Silke Birgitta (2011). Das Therapeutische Milieu in der Arbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen. Trauma- und Beziehungsarbeit in stationären Einrichtungen [Therapeutic environment in work with children and adolescents. Trauma and relationship work in residential care]. Bonn:  Psychiatrie-Verlag.
Arbeitskreis der Therapeutischen Jugendwohngruppen Berlin (Ed.) (2009). Abschlussbericht der Katamnesestudie therapeutischer Wohngruppen in Berlin KATA-TWG. Berlin: Verlag Allgemeine Jugendberatung.
Krause, Bert, Wachsmuth, Ingrid, Rosemeier, Claus-Peter, Meybohm, Ute & Gahleitner, Silke Birgitta (2009). Katamnesestudie therapeutischer Jugendwohngruppen – Eine retrospektive Aktenanalyse zur Untersuchung von Einflussfaktoren auf den Erfolg. In Silke Birgitta Gahleitner & Gernot Hahn (Eda.), Klinische Sozialarbeit. Forschung aus der Praxis – Forschung für die Praxis (pp. 238-252). Bonn: Psychiatrie-Verlag. (Beiträge zur psychosozialen Praxis und Forschung. 2.)
Gahleitner, Silke Birgitta, Krause, Bert & Rosemeier, Claus-Peter (2009). Komplexe Anforderungsprofile: Ergebnisse aus einer Katamnesestudie Therapeutischer Jugendwohngruppen. Klinische Sozialarbeit, 5(4), 6-8.
Arbeitskreis der Therapeutischen Jugendwohngruppen Berlin (Ed.) (2008). Therapeutisches Milieu als Angebot der Jugendhilfe. Konzepte und Arbeitsweisen therapeutischer Jugendwohngruppen in Berlin. Volume 2. Berlin: Verlag Allgemeine Jugendberatung.
Arbeitskreis der Therapeutischen Jugendwohngruppen Berlin (Ed.) (2005). Therapeutisches Milieu als Angebot der Jugendhilfe. Konzepte und Arbeitsweisen therapeutischer Jugendwohngruppen in Berlin. Berlin: Verlag Allgemeine Jugendberatung. |
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| Quality of life of tumour patients following surgery and reconstruction of the oro-mandibular region. The contribution of the hospital clinical social work service to psycho-social care (2005-2007) |
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Co-operative project between the hospital clinical social work service of the unit for oro-mandibular and facial surgery of the Heidelberg University Hospital and the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. |
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Severe impairments of the quality of life due to tumor diseases are omnipresent in oncology. Nevertheless clinical care often lacks a psychosocial approach of this problem as well as sufficient offers to accompany and support patients in their extremely changed all day life. Pressures can be so profound that psychological comorbidities develop. This includes anxiety disorders, depressive reactions or posttraumatic stress disorders. In these cases patients usually turn to staff of the hospital's social work service. |
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Quality assurance concerning psychosocial support and help for coping with mental illnesses is gaining increasing importance. Though especially in so-called "softer areas" like psychosocial care and coping-support, quality assurance is a more complex venture than in medical or pharmacological care. Hard, easy to operate criteria still are an exception to the rule. Therefore one should involve examinations that are combined under aspects of approaches concerning both quality and quantity and half-structured interviews on the one hand and methods of testing concerning symptoms on the other hand. With this attempt one is able to gain a deeper and more detailed insight into the subject. |
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To gain a deep and detailed insight into the subject this co-operative project included an explorative panel study. |
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Publications:
Gahleitner, S. B., Becker-Bikowski & Schiel, R. (2008). Quality of life of tumor patients following surgery and reconstruction of the oro-mandibular region. The contribution of the hospital clinical social work service to psycho-social care. In G. L. Huber (Ed.), Qualitative approaches in the field of psychology (pp. 81-94). Schwangau: Ingeborg Huber. (Qualitative Psychology Nexus. 7.) Available online: http://psydok.sulb.uni-saarland.de/volltexte/2008/2350/pdf/nexus_7.pdf [31.12.2008].
Gahleitner, S. B., Becker-Bikowski, K. & Schiel, R. (2007). Quality of life of tumor patients following surgery and reconstruction of the oro-mandibular region. The contribution of the hospital clinical social work service to psycho-social care. Online-publication. Psydok - Full text server of the Virtual Psychology Library of the University Saarland. URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-psydok-10255. Available online: http://psydok.sulb.uni-saarland.de/volltexte/2007/1025/ [22.09.2008].
Gahleitner, S. B. & Becker-Bikowski, K. (2007). Quality of life and coping of tumor patients following Surgery and Reconstruction of the oro-mandibular region - Article with reference to psychosocial care of the hospital clinical social work service. In Ernst Engelke, Konrad Maier, Erika Steinert, Stefan Borrmann & Christian Spatscheck (Eds.), Forschung für die Praxis. Zum gegenwärtigen Stand der Sozialarbeitsforschung (pp. 123-127). Stuttgart: Lambertus. |
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| Models of Gender-Sensitive Therapy and Counseling for the Treatment of Complex Sexual Traumatization – an Exploratory Study Focusing Particularly on the Client Perspective (2004-2005) |
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Problem-centred interviews were combined with quantitative measures. In the analysis of the data the qualitative content analysis was modified and combined with a gender-sensitive procedure. The results are compared to those of other recent studies in the fields of attachment, trauma, psychtherapy and counseling.
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The results showed, that both - men and women - emphasized the crucial importance of supportive relationship experiences, both in their closest environments and in their encounters with professional helpers. The other major result had to do with the clients' experiences of therapy and counseling in which they frequently felt that insufficient attention had been paid to precisely this aspect - the centrality of the therapeutic relationship. In the last few years research on attachment has been focusing on practice-oriented investigations of treatment approaches on the basis of attachment theory and making its results accessible to practicing therapists. In my view this has closed a decisive gap. This research thus developed out of a process of linking the different levels of my experience in research, theory and practice and lays the emphasis on a key quality seen as crucial for therapeutic work with clients with the sequelae of complex traumatization, that is, on the therapeutic relationship as a response to the experience of sexual abuse and abuse of trust.
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The research was founded by the program for the equality of women in research and teaching in 2004.
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Publications:
Gahleitner, S. B. (2005). Neue Bindungen wagen. Beziehungsorientierte Therapie bei sexueller Traumatisierung. [Daring to make new bonds. Relationship oriented therapy in cases of sexual traumatisation.] München: Reinhardt.
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| Modes of Coping with Sexual Abuse in Women and Men – An Exploratory Study from a Salutogenetic Viewpoint (2000-2004) |
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The dissertation investigates the questions as to how women and men come to terms with early experiences of sexual abuse, what factors favour a positive outcome, the extent to which gender-specific aspects play a role and how insight into these issues can be made available to practising counsellors and psychotherapists. The study is based on data obtained with 22 problem-centred, biographically oriented interviews and supplementary sociometric and diagnostic measures conducted with survivors of sexual abuse. In the analysis of the data the qualitative content analysis was modified and combined with a gender-sensitive procedure.
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The results reveal that the initial effects of sexual trauma are very similar for the two sexes, but that there are differences in the long-term effects and how they are processed. It was also evidenced that both men and women have difficulty in coming to terms with their experiences of abuse if they fail to go beyond sex role stereotypes, whereas flexible handling of gender-specific behaviours widens both sexes' repertoires of strategies for confronting the long-term sequelae. The results are compared to those of other recent studies in the fields of trauma and gender research and expert interviews carried out previously by the author. They reveal new aspects both for the development of gender-specific models for psychotherapy and counselling and for future research in the field of trauma.
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Publications:
Gahleitner, S. B. (2006). Sexuelle Gewalt und Geschlecht. Hilfen zur Traumabewältigung bei Frauen und Männern. Gießen: Psychosozial.
Gahleitner, S. B. (June 2004). Geschlechtsspezifische Verarbeitung sexueller Gewalt. Eine explorative Untersuchung aus salutogenetischer Perspektive [Gender-specific Coping with Sexual Abuse. An Exploratory Study from a Salutogenetic Viewpoint]. Conference of the Berlin Program for Equal Chances in Research and Teaching. Available at http://www2.hu-berlin.de/ffz/pdf-files/gahleitner.pdf [27.7.2004].
Gahleitner, S. B. (2003). Sexuelle Gewalterfahrung und ihre Bewältigung bei Frauen und Männern. Eine explorative Untersuchung aus salutogenetischer Perspektive [Modes of coping with sexual abuse in women and men. An exploratory study from a salutogenetic viewpoint]. Dissertation at the Free University Berlin, Departement of Clinical Psychology.
Gahleitner, S. B. (2003). Gender-specific aspects of coming to terms with sexual abuse. Results of a qualitative study. In: Mechthild Kiegelmann & Leo Gürtler (Eds.), Research questions and matching methods of analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, Volume III (pp. 171-182). Schwangau: Ingeborg Huber.
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