Introduction
trauma
ALBERT
Considerable mainstream emphasis on pathology-based and trauma-oriented mental health assessments and interventions have paid little attention to potential resources and capabilities that migrants and refugees possess [Despite post-migration psychosocial stressors, pre-migration and in-transit trauma and pressure, many migrants and refugees show resilience and strength in the midst and aftermath of hardships, and possess personal, familial, cultural, and community resources. Fast growing research frequently reports high levels of psychological resilience in migrant populations worldwide [Perspective taking, an important personal social skill, is particularly relevant to migrants’ experiences of adjustment and integration into host communities, as it is frequently associated with an improvement of social bonds and prosocial behavior [The counseling approach used in ‘Value Based Counseling’ (VBC), a low-threshold, short-term and culturally sensitive psychological intervention, goes back to the need to address mental health needs of people living in a context of continuous and ongoing psychosocial stress in Afghanistan in 2005 [VBC is based on the core concept of a salutogenic approach, i.e. the sense of coherence (SOC) comprising the constructs of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness [VBC adopts Albert Bandura’s conceptualization of perceived self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to produce given attainments” [Furthermore, emphasizing the importance of meaning making and self-awareness in the counseling process, VBC encourages clients to connect to their personal and cultural values, strengths and resources through a non-directive but carefully structured conversation with a counselor who shares their language and cultural background. This ideally enables the counselor to recognize relevant triggers, to understand their meaning and to base appropriate action on emotional judgement. A shared deep understanding of the client’s inner situation and living conditions can increase the client’s self-awareness, which, in turn, provides a basis for improving their sense of self-control and self-efficacy [In summary, the growing need for psychological interventions with a resource-oriented, culturally sensitive approach within migrant populations stimulated the present research to examine whether VBC can improve resilience and perspective taking in migrants and refugees resettled in Germany. We also investigated whether improvements within the VBC group lasted for a period of three months.