How peer refugee helpers draw on their lived experience in problem management plus: a qualitative study

Abstract Background Emerging evidence suggests that peer support can benefit refugees, but little is known about how refugee peer helpers draw on and interpret their lived experiences in their work. This study aimed to explore whether and how peer helpers conducting Problem Management Plus (PM+) use their experiences from forced or voluntary migration in their work with fellow refugees. Methods Eight PM+ helpers (seven women and one man) working at two Norwegian health care centers for newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers were interviewed using McAdams’ Life Story Interview. Interviews lasted one to four hours. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to explore how helpers ascribed meaning to their major life events and how this influenced them in their peer helper role. Results The analysis generated three major themes: (1) Drawing on post-migration struggles to understand and guide clients (2), Drawing on political oppression to enact an ethic of equal respect with clients, and (3) Drawing on gendered adversity to recognize and protect female clients. All themes seemed to reflect the helpers’ transformation of personal struggle into professional strength. The narratives suggested that the helpers had not only developed instrumental skills, such as strategies for coping with resettlement challenges, but had also integrated their experiences of adversity into their identities in the form of convictions and values that ultimately benefitted their clients. Conclusions The helpers’ narratives suggested that integration of adverse experiences into their understandings of themselves and others enabled them to respect, understand and guide their clients.