The professional, political and pers


psychology service in the context of disas Grenfell Tower Fire, 14 June 2017 Nasima Khanom


Vignette: Laila and Adam I worked with a young family of fi ve: Laila


with her husband Adam and their three young children of Islamic faith and heritage. Laila lost her ‘cousin-sister’ (in a collective kinship-system, cousins take on a greater sibling role and signifi cance), what we would call fi rst cousin, with that cousin’s husband and their three children in the Grenfell fi re. T ey were referred to me by another agency for a culturally and faith-based therapeutic service which I off ered from the local mosque. I worked through an interpreter for Laila who had limited English as they were fairly new to the country and a twice migrated family. T e fi rst session was overwhelming for


the client family with their personal loss and grief. T ey were hurt, in pain and plain angry. T e couple repeatedly asked me, “Why did this happen? How could this happen?” Laila mourned, “I didn’t just lose a cousin! I lost my sister, brother-in-law and nieces and nephews. My family was them and this was my only family in London!” Laila and Adam were angry. Laila would weep throughout most of the sessions. She told me it was hard for her to explain her sense of family cross-culturally to the authorities, where her sense of identity in the family-as-kinship was collective in nature and not so individualistic, particularly in the context of a migrant family. It was diffi cult to explain to the children the loss of their cousins, who also considered them siblings-as-sisters/brothers. T e authorities told Laila she was not an immediate family member. T is meant that some next-of-kin received fi nancial support which she was not entitled to. I was worried about Laila’s fl uctuating


low mood, but knew referring her on to other services was impossible, as trust was completely broken between her and the authorities, part of the reason why the referral was made to me as a Muslim family therapist off ering service from a local mosque.


26 Then, “It was a terrorist act”. I froze.


Adam said that it was deliberate. I did not know how to respond to that. In my head I was thinking, “What can I say to this?” This is a powerful statement. The Oxford dictionary describes terror as extreme fear. Other synonyms are dread, horror, fear and trembling, fright, trepidation, alarm, panic and shock. The dictionary describes terrorism as (mass noun): “The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. This messiness was


So, my sense of self as fragmented Grief was


mingled with rage, going through all the stages


politically ref lected in the systemic failure of communities and families that this family were symbolising and naming in their own way. Grief was mingled with rage, going through all the stages simultaneously in a circular systemic loop. The wider socio-political systemic context in 2018 was unprecedented shock and trauma as a nation, where wave after wave of terrorist attacks such as the Manchester bombing, London Bridge, Westminster Bridge and Finsbury Park took place. All these were in the immediate backdrop of Grenfell Tower. Is it any wonder as a nation we might be thinking we are living through a nightmare from which we must surely wake up? We all experienced it, some close up and ‘in your face’, and the ripple effects impacted on many multiple contexts. I experienced it up close on the local level and lived through this tension every single day that year. Now, dare I mention Brexit: the politics of Brexit which are currently tearing us apart?


simultaneously in a circular


systemic loop


might make sense to me now. That may explain the many polyphonic voices in my head as I was struggling to make sense of it all. One part of me was questioning, how can this be compared to terrorism, because I had almost internalised that terrorism is a Muslim problem, exclusively. Terrorist equates to a Muslim; a Muslim was a potential threat. Another part of me was thinking terrorism is commonly portrayed by the media and government as something more politically driven, such as the ISIS/


Daesh movement. You cannot compare it to that! Then still, the part of me that was triggered was the personal self of the therapist where I was nursing a raw wound where I directly experienced a hate/Islamaphobic attack on the bus, after the Finsbury Park terror attack. It was all too much and overwhelming. Is it any wonder I froze? Like a deer caught in the lights! This made me ref lect – do we as a


profession talk about the big elephant, ‘terrorism’, in our clinical practice and write about the experiences? I have yet to see it. It seems we have made another taboo subject. I listened quietly and let the clients


express their feelings of frustration, anger, confusion and loss. Their words were somewhat like blows to my solar plexus. It was like many wounds that were laying underneath the surface that could never be voiced in supervision or elsewhere. I have never taken this theme


Context 164, August 2019


The professional, political and personal self


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