Refugees have in their biography in common that their departure has not been prepared; it was done with the utmost urgency. The migratory path has been achieved, most of the time, in dreadful, dangerous and insecure conditions. Most of the time families are incomplete because of children left in the native land, disappeared during the journey, dead. Absent children represent an indescribable pain, most of the time unspeakable. A new rule is established: silence. This family rule fits over parents, over children arrived in the asylum country but also over the children born in exile. To talk about absent children put in danger. The therapist often ends up himself in a sensitive position facing the intolerable situation. Sometimes the missing trauma associated to the violence and the traumatisms endured by the family members may push the therapist toward an enforcement of the new rule, the silence.

Exile Silence Children Traumatism Absence

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