During the 2024 ORR Survivor of Torture Recipient Meeting, held in Washington, DC on March 20th, 2024 there were three Peer Learning Sessions. These sessions allowed different programs to inform those at the meetings, of the specific work they were doing to assist survivors on specific topics. During this Peer Learning Session on Services in Support of Children of Survivors, two insightful presentations were delivered, each delving into unique programs designed to provide support for children of survivors. The roster of presenters featured Elissa Bargas, Boston Medical Center; Julia Montany, and Stacey Frymier from Las Cumbres each bringing their expertise and passion to shed light on these crucial initiatives.
First Presentation: Elissa Bargas on Transnational Parenting Groups
Description: The Transnational Parenting Support Group presentation is tailored for SOT programs to better understand and support parents navigating the complexities of parenting across borders. This presentation will delve into the normalization of transnational parenting, addressing periods of uncertainty during asylum or reunification processes, and the challenges of navigating US acculturation stress and legal insecurity. The presenter will explore the impact of parental role changes on children and caregivers, discuss common communication dilemmas, and share strategies for maintaining attachment through distance. Reflecting on their program’s collective experiences, they will discuss structured curriculum, psychoeducation on US parenting systems, and managing complex emotions. This presentation will focus on cultural considerations in educational expectations, children’s global rights, and adapting models like the ARC Model for Transnational Parenting.
Resources: Normalization of Transnational Parenting
- Parenting while children and parents are in different countries as a common practice around the world.
- Mazzucato V., Schans D. (2011). Transnational Families and the Well-Being of Children: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges Journal of Marriage and the Family, 73(4), 704.
- Dreby J. (2006). Honor and virtue: Mexican parenting in the transnational context. Gender & Society, 20(1), 32–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205282660.
- Bernardi L. 2011. “A Mixed-Methods Social Networks Study Design for Research on Transnational Families.” Journal of Marriage and Family 73(4):788–803. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00845.x.
- Boccagni P. 2012. “Practising Motherhood at a Distance: Retention and Loss in Ecuadorian Transnational Families.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies38(2):261–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.646421.
- Dito B. B., Mazzucato V., Schans D. 2017. “The Effects of Transnational Parenting on the Subjective Health and Well-Being of Ghanaian Migrants in the Netherlands.” Population, Space and Place23(3):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2006.
- The effects of transnational parenting on the subjective health and well-being of Ghanaian migrants in The Netherlands
Second Presentation: Julia Montany and Stacey Frymier on Resilience in Generations: Nurturing Children of Survivors
Description: Presentation will focus on best-practice interventions for providing trauma-responsive care to children and families served in SOT programs.
Las Cumbres (LCCS) has provided community-based social services for children and families for over 50 years in Northern New Mexico. For several decades, we have worked to develop a continuum of evidence-based and promising-practice interventions to treat child traumatic stress through a family systems and multigenerational approach. Wraparound care for families includes a combination of clinical counseling and navigation/case management services that are often delivered in the family home, community, and/or school settings in addition to more traditional individual and group services provided in our offices.
One of the most important contributions we have found to supporting newly-arrived families is to offer relationship-based parenting support and specialized services for children.
Resources:
Presenter Bios:
- Elissa Bargas, LICSW is a Clinical Social Work Supervisor with Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights associated with Boston Medical Center. She has focused her social work career in working with individual impacted by trauma. Currently supporting adults with experienced human rights violations and experienced torture. In her roles she supervises clinicians and clinical trainees in trauma treatment methods, such as Narrative Exposure Therapy and Parts Works Therapy, with a focus on attachment theory. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Masters in Social Work in ’08. She is a Certified Trauma Therapist from the Trauma Center in Brookline, Ma, co-facilitated by Bessel van der Kolk. For the last 5 year, as a Clinical Supervisor with Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, she provided direct treatment and has co-developed a Trauma Informed LGBTQ Discussion group and Co-Facilitated a Transnational Parenting Support Group.
- Stacey Frymier, MA, LPCC, LPAT-ATR, IMHM-C, serves as the Executive Team Lead, oversees the Community Youth and Caregiver Programs Division and is the Project Director for the agency’s SAMHSA/NCTSN grant designating Las Cumbres as a Child Trauma Treatment Center. She earned her MA in Counseling and Art Therapy from Southwestern College in 2006, and her BA in Counseling and Fine Arts from Purdue University in 1999. She holds dual licensure in Clinical Counseling and Art Therapy, national registration as an Art Therapist, and Infant Mental Health Endorsement as a Clinical Mentor. Frymier led the development of the agency’s Santuario del Corazón Program, which provides specialized services to immigrant children and their families in Northern New Mexico and along the NM/TX/Mexico border. Frymier began her work at Las Cumbres as an Early Childhood Behavioral Health Therapist in 2006. She served as the Behavioral Health Department Director and the Child and Family Services Director before moving into her current role.
- Julia Montany is experienced in trauma and crisis management and specializes in serving vulnerable populations, with over ten years of experience internationally and within the U.S. Currently the WINGS Program Manager at Las Cumbres Community Services, she previously managed three federally funded programs with New Mexico’s refugee resettlement organization (Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains): Survivors of Torture, Trafficking Victims Assistance Program, and Intensive Case Management. Julia is a Ph.D. candidate in International Psychology with a trauma concentration and holds an MA in Human Services Counseling for Trauma and Crisis Response. Additionally, she holds certificates in both Global Mental Health and Healing Survivors of Torture from Harvard Medical School, as well as in Disaster Response from the ICRC. She volunteers as a Disaster Response Action Team Specialist for the American Red Cross.
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