Therapeutic Engagement with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Minors

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20426
For this podcast, for Refugee Week, we are joined by Dr. Hayley Rajpal, a child and adolescent psychotherapist with a specialism in working with looked after children and their networks. Hayley’s thesis research explored the challenges of therapeutic engagement with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, and this will be the focus of the podcast.
To set the scene, Hayley provides a brief overview of psychotherapy before turning to detail how she came to be interested in child and adolescent mental health as it relates to refugees and asylum seekers.
Turning to Hayley’s studies, where she explored the experiences of care networks providing therapeutic support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, Hayley shares some of the main takeaways from her thesis.
Furthermore, having touched on the impact of difference and diversity, plus racism and media perceptions, Hayley also shares what issues have arisen around difference and diversity when it comes to the provision of care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young adults.