Between 8th-9th Of June 2015, ICAR specialists working in the Medical Centre from Bucharest and the ones working in the five Regional Centres for Accommodation and Procedures for Asylum Seekers (Bucharest, Galati, Radauti, Somcuta Mare and Timisoara) participated at the first professional training session on trauma intervention delivered by the Swiss experts from Pluriels Association.

During the two days of training, Laurent Subilia,  physician and psychotherapist, and Alfredo Camelo, psychologist, discussed about efficient intervention methods to support vulnerable people with a traumatic past, such as migrants who arrive in Romania from conflict zones. The two experts discussed about:

• how to identify vulnerable persons among migrant population; physical and psychological symptoms of trauma;
• how to built a patient-therapist relationship when working with trauma survivors from different cultural backgrounds;
• treatment strategies, nonverbal intervention techniques;
• ethno-cultural approach, intercultural difficulties.

Dr. Laurent Subilia has illustrated his theoretical information with real cases encountered in his clinical experience. The Swiss expert emphasised that it is important that professionals working with migrants survivors of traumatic experiences to adapt their intervention according to patient’s cultural particularities.

The training was organised within the project ‘Harmonization in professional development standards in psycho-trauma intervention through Swiss-Romanian cooperation’, co-financed by a grant offered by Switzerland to Romania through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union.

The overall aim of the project is to create a sustainable training program on trauma addressed to Romanian mental health specialists. The course will be developed based on a transfer of expertise from the Swiss partner. After the elaboration of the training curricula, the course will benefit from recognised credits from the Romanian College of Psychologists, consequently, a pilot training program delivered by a Swiss-Romanian mixed team of trainers will run.