EXPLORING FAMILY AND SOCIAL SUPPORT IN TRAUMA RECOVERY: NGO PRACTITIONERS’ PERSPECTIVES FROM INDONESIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7i1.1069Keywords:
trauma recovery, therapeutic communication, relational support, psychosocial intervention, qualitative studyAbstract
Sexual violence continues to be a serious social issue, with young women experiencing long-lasting psychological and social consequences. Recent scholarship increasingly recognises that trauma recovery takes place within relationships and is shaped through everyday interactions in survivors’ social lives. This qualitative study examines how practitioners from non-governmental organisations in Indonesia understand and work with the involvement of family members and close social networks in supporting the trauma recovery of young women survivors of sexual violence. The study draws on in-depth interviews with practitioners who provide psychosocial support to survivors. The findings indicate that trauma recovery is closely linked to how support is communicated in daily encounters. Practitioners described how being believed, listened to with care, and emotionally understood helped survivors feel safer and more able to continue their recovery process. By contrast, silence, moral judgement, and stigmatising responses from family members or close social contacts were described as intensifying distress and discouraging further help-seeking. Practitioners also highlighted the importance of ongoing and carefully managed communication with families as a way to build trust and sustain supportive relationships. Overall, this study offers a relational and communication-based perspective on trauma recovery and underscores the importance of survivor-centred and culturally responsive support practices in non-Western contexts.
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