“I would love to wave magic wands, but I feel helpless and powerless”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of therapists´ experience of the challenges of working with asylum seekers and refugees in the UK

The burden of mental health problems among asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) is high. Despite emerging efficacious therapeutic approaches for ASRs, various challenges make their effective delivery less clear and consistent. This study explores therapists’ experiences of working with ASRs. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), six UK-based therapists participated in semi-structured interviews lasting 65 – 135 minutes. Three interrelated challenges were identified: personal, clinical, and systemic. Therapists described profound powerlessness and frustration, impacting agency. Clinically, therapeutic impasses emerged from divergent sense-making between care providers and clients, sometimes complicated by interpreters and societal stigma. Systemic hostility towards ASRs intruded on the therapeutic space, pulling away resources and impacting providers’ sense of capability. Therapists’ lived experience of working with ASRs highlights the emotional and ethical labour of care, shaped by their own values and the restrictive systemic context in which their clients are situated and in which care takes place.