| Professor Silke Birgitta Gahleitner |
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Interdisciplinary Jour Fixe
Trauma Therapy and Counseling in Psychosocial Settings |
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In recent decades new modes of intervention and treatment have been developed in psychotraumatology. However, professionals working in this field still repeatedly find themselves confronted with problems that are difficult to solve.
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The Jour Fixe, which takes place every two months, is intended as an interdisciplinary forum for professionals working with victims of trauma to come together and exchange views on subjects of major importance in trauma therapy and counseling and as an opportunity to create new networks and improve existing ones.
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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 (since 2008) |
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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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Catamnesis survey – Therapeutic residential youth groups in Berlin (since 2007)
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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 (2006-2007)
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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. (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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