ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses typical categories of clients who have complex trauma. The social, societal, and historical context in which severe violence occurs is an important factor in effectively interpreting a client's specific situation and invaluable for the therapeutic process, both for the client and the therapist. In the Netherlands in the decades after the Second World War, clients with complex trauma were predominantly survivors of German concentration camps and Japanese-run internment camps in the Dutch East Indies. Young's schema therapy would categorize this client group in the 'Hypervigilance and Inhibition' domain, which addresses 'Negativity/Pessimism', 'Emotional inhibition', 'Unrelenting standards/Hypercriticalness', and 'Punitiveness'. Psychoeducation about the trauma processes as well as the ageing issues should be included in the treatment for these clients. Refugees in the Dutch mental healthcare system are a heterogeneous group. Differences in geographical, religious, or political ethnicity play less of a role with telephone interpreters.
