Home away from home Healing among Congolese refugees in Rwanda through community-based sociotherapy

Sociotherapy evolved in the Netherlands from a therapeutic community model. The idea underpinning therapeutic communities and sociotherapy is that the methods to support recovery from overwhelming experiences should be environmental and not solely dependent on individual forms of treatment. This chapter discusses the use of the sociotherapy model with Congolese refugees in Rwanda, and draws on the authors’ experience of implementing this form of therapeutic groupwork in Rwanda and surrounding countries since 2005. The chapter describes the principles which underpin sociotherapy, and how these have been applied in the Rwanda context, using case studies and examples to illustrate the process. The impact of sociotherapy is also explored, both in terms of individual wellbeing, the effects on those individuals’ families, and the reconciliation of people in conflict.