Using a case study, this paper describes initial results from qualitative research with women widowed as a result of conflict in Kashmir. Recognising resilience as a process that contributes to a sense of wellbeing, this paper highlights how this process also often involves experiencing and exercising overlapping identities of being a ‘victim’, ‘widow, and a ‘mother’ for women within conflict contexts.

The last several decades of ongoing conflict and oppression in Myanmar (as it is now officially known) has had an extensive psychological and emotional impact on its people. Unfortunately, there has been a distinct lack of psychosocial programming provided through culturally appropriate methods in Myanmar. This study investigated an eight session psychotherapy group called Sharing Circles. Trained local staff implemented a group intervention in Yangon, Myanmar with 57 Burmese participants from Yangon identified as belonging to one of three vulnerable groups.

The world currently faces its largest global displacement crisis since World War II, with approximately 60 million people currently displaced due to conflict, persecution and untenable conditions in their home country. Whilst foreseeable, E urope is still reeling in shock from the sheer numbers of refugees and migrants – approximately one million – who have crossed its borders in 2015.

Ever increasing humanitarian crises involve prolonged population displacement, a known trigger for chronic stress, which in turn highlights the need for chronic stress to be addressed more explicitly within humanitarian aid work. This calls for better tools to both assess chronic stress in these situations of extended displacement, as well as methods to evaluate the impact of psychosocial interventions in such settings. Noting these challenges, this paper proposes the use of hair cortisol concentration sampling to measure long-term suffering and stress.