ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which, for some asylum seekers who are less resilient, it is the loss of contact with a supportive internal relationship that depletes their capacity for resilience, leaving them inadequately resourced to face and endure the realities of their situation. It illustrates how psychoanalytically informed therapeutic work can help asylum seekers re-establish a connection with an object that can support them in tolerating the painful realities of their situation and in using whatever help may be available in establishing a new life for themselves. The chapter deals with asylum seekers and refugees, over a number of years, at the Tavistock Clinic as well as in community settings such as schools. Asylum seekers arrive in the UK from different countries having had a wide range of experiences that affect their health.
