Research Design of Study Topic: Pastoral Counseling Experiences with Liberian Refugees Methodology for the Study: Qualitative Study In this paper, begin with a description of the research design,...

Research Design
    Research Design     2018
Pastoral Counseling Experiences With Liberian Refugees
Abstract
The Civil War had grave consequences on the people of Liberia as more than 2 million people were forced to leave their homes and countless people were murdered, raped and abducted (Summerfield, 2000). According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the Africans are disproportionately impacted by the conflict related displacement (UNHCR, 2017). However much of research has been done in the past elaborating on the health conditions and trauma of the refugees. This paper proportionately studies several aspects concerning the Liberian Refugees in North Carolina and their experiences with the pastoral counselors. This paper focuses on the intervention and counseling done by the pastoral counselors for the Liberian Refugees living in North Carolina. Qualitative research has been conducted and 55 refugees have been given counseling sessions over the period of two weeks.
Introduction
The refugees around the world undergo lot of mental and physical trauma, they are generally war impacted individuals who are forced to move to another country for better living conditions. Many Liberians live in America, the Liberian refugees in America grew slowly but there was sudden rise in the number of refugees after the civil war. The war that lasted for almost 8 years from 1989-1997 sent the wave of immigrants to America (Omata, 2013). The Liberian refugees are living in America for many years but they still struggle in their everyday life and face lots of challenges on regular basis.
The Liberian in America face several problems including identity crisis, racism and mental and physical trauma. They are constantly harassed for migrating to the foreign land and live under the threat of deportation. The refugees have been given pastoral counseling which includes interdisciplinary activities, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies to help improve their mental condition. This was also an attempt to help the Liberian community to adjust in the new environment and assist them in handling the war trauma by providing crisis counseling (Omata, 2013). The present study therefore uses the mixed methods for investigating the stressor, copping strategies used by the pastoral counselors and the counseling given to the refugees in the country. Qualitative research methodology has been used in the paper to study the living conditions of the Liberian Refugees in North Carolina.
Research Design
The knowledge about the Liberian refugees focuses on the post traumatic stress disorder as trauma is considered to be the most significant experience of the refugees. But many refugees or the survivors of conflict do not give much importance to the traumatic behavior, they instead lay more emphasis on the social variables. Some of these variables are housing, health facility, availability of resources and school system and the political conditions (Jeppson, 2005). The refugees constantly struggle to make space for themselves and their future generation and are reluctant to go back to their homeland due to the poor condition of their country. Despite thousands of cases of...