”A group-based phase 1 trauma treatment approach in rural parts of Northern Norway – experiences and challenges”

By Signe Hjelen Stige, psychologist at DPS Vest-Finnmark, Norway

Key words:  Therapy, clinical, or intervention research & Violence and sexual abuse

The presentation will address experiences from stabilisation groups run in rural areas of Northern Norway. The aim of the group-based treatment is to help the clients to gain a better understanding of, and more control with their posttraumatic symptoms – a phase 1 trauma treatment. The clients are all women with active post-traumatic symptoms, who have been exposed to human-inflicted traumas, like violence, sexual abuse, rape etc – either in childhood, adulthood or both. All clients have an individual treatment contact in the mental health system parallel with the group treatment, and after completing the group they will continue phase 2 treatment (integration) in individual treatment. The content of the group-based treatment will be presented, as well as challenges with running stabilisation groups in rural areas - challenges like cooperation across different sections of the health-care system, the challenges posed by a small populations and a wide range of trauma-related problems in the same treatment group etc. I have also initiated a research project aiming at mapping the experiences of the clients attending the group – the preliminary results of this research will be presented in a separate presentation