• Posts

Embroidery (tatriz) and Syrian refugees: Exploring loss and hope through storytelling

Year Published:

Abstract

Canada is now home to at least 44,615 Syrian refugees. Of these refugees, four out of five
are women and children. There is a clear need for an increase in mental health resources,
resource accessibility, and social connection for Syrian refugees. This paper describes a
Syrian refugee women’s embroidery program that provided both an accessible art therapy
group and a way for the participants to process feelings of hope and loss. Postgroup questionnaires
indicated that the women experienced a sense of pride and mastery over their
completed artwork, built new friendships and community, and felt connected to their homeland
through the embroidery. One-on-one interviews were held to collect the participants’
stories. The participants’ artwork and stories are summarized in this paper, and the stories
are available in full as supplementary material.

Citation

  • Hanania, A. (2020). Embroidery (tatriz) and Syrian refugees: Exploring loss and hope through storytelling. Canadian journal of art therapy, 33(2), 62-69.
Access Full Text

Relevant Evidence Summaries

The evidence was reviewed and included in the following summaries: 

What can help refugees process traumatic grief?

There is limited strong evidence on interventions that specifically target traumatic grief. –  Prolonged and traumatic grief are usually closely associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and therefore many interventions targeted PTSD with grief symptoms as an auxiliary diagnosis –  There appear to be some differences in interventions that target grief as a result of…

About this study

AGE: Adults

DIRECTION OF EVIDENCE: Positive impact

FULL TEXT AVAILABILITY: Paid

HOST COUNTRY: Canada

HOST COUNTRY INCOME: High

INTERVENTION DURATION: 12 Weeks

INTERVENTION: Embroidery

OUTCOME: loss

OUTCOME AREA: Mental Health

POPULATION: Refugees

REGION OF ORIGIN OF PARTICIPANT(S): Middle East

STRENGTH OF EVIDENCE: Suggestive

TYPE OF STUDY: Suggestive evidence

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2020

More STUDIES

The management of volunteers – What can human resources do? A review and research agenda

There is an increasing interest from scholars and practitioners in understanding how non-profit organizations can design and implement human resources (HR) practices to enhance desirable volunteer attitudes and behaviors. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of existing studies on the relationship between HR practices and volunteering outcomes. We use the ability-motivation-opportunity model as a guiding…

Predictors of turnover amongst volunteers: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Volunteers represent a global workforce equivalent to 61 million full-time workers. A significant decline in volunteering has highlighted the urgency to better understand and address turnover amongst volunteers. To address this, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of turnover amongst volunteers. We also examined whether staying or leaving has different predictors. The meta-analysis integrated…