Trauma Recovery Framework

Refugee trauma recovery cannot be addressed through a single intervention or within a single psychosocial domain. It is shaped by a complex interplay of pre-migration trauma, displacement and resettlement experiences, and the systems and environments that refugee communities encounter in their new country. FASSTT’s approach is grounded in a set of interrelated frameworks that reflect the depth and breadth of what effective trauma recovery requires and inform every aspect of how services are delivered.

These frameworks underpin the development of a shared model of care across the FASSTT network. The model is embedded in theory, refined by experience, driven by survivor needs and decades of deep relationships with refugee communities.

In 2020, the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture released the second edition of the pivotal text Rebuilding Shattered Lives. Led by Dr Ida Kaplan and shaped by decades of collective practice and research across the FASSTT network, the work articulates four core trauma recovery goals that guide the delivery of services across Australia.

Each goal is an applied expression of the frameworks described above. Together, they form a holistic blueprint for recovery that supports individual healing, family restoration, and community resilience.

Dr Ida Kaplan and Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House) (2020). Rebuilding Shattered Lives. Integrated Trauma Recovery for People of Refugee Background.

The Four Trauma Recovery Goals

These four goals are embedded across the FASSTT network, ensuring that despite geographic diversity, services remain consistent in purpose, values, and therapeutic orientation.

Safety and Stabilisation

Safety is the foundation of recovery; it provides the conditions in which trust and healing can begin. Without it, other aspects of recovery, such as dignity, connection, and identity cannot take root. For many survivors, the most urgent need is to feel physically, emotionally, and psychologically safe.

This includes stable housing, access to healthcare, interpreter-supported mental health care and, for some, legal support for visa and protection matters.

Connection and Belonging

Displacement and trauma often result in deep social disconnection. FASSTT agencies support survivors to rebuild trust and relationships. This is achieved through peer groups, community events, and social participation. These activities nurture belonging, challenge stigma, and foster reintegration into communal life.

Identity and Purpose

Trauma can rupture a person’s sense of identity and disrupt their connection to culture, language, and meaning. FASSTT services help individuals rediscover purpose through cultural expression, education, employment, volunteering, and spirituality. These pathways restore resilience and help survivors rebuild a sense of meaning, cultural continuity, and future possibility.

Dignity and Value

Dignity is often the first thing stripped from people during torture, persecution, and forced displacement. Survivors are silenced, dehumanised, and denied agency. Restoring dignity is not just a moral imperative, it is a central pillar of trauma recovery. While safety creates the external conditions for healing, dignity restores the inner sense of self that trauma seeks to erase.