Multifamily Healing Spaces: Development of a Family-Based Intervention for Recovery and Resilience in Rwanda

Abstract

The genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda led to the death of over one million Tutsi (Republic of Rwanda, 2007). This caused a severe mental health burden that still reverberates to this day. While significant efforts have been made to promote healing at the individual and community levels, through individual clinical interventions and community-based sociotherapy, the family level has received less attention. Recent evidence of intergenerational transmission of trauma, from direct survivors and perpetrators of the genocide to their offspring, suggests a need to complement existing interventions with family-based approaches (Berckmoes et al., 2017). Against this backdrop, multifamily healing spaces (MFHSs) were developed as a contextually customised intervention to strengthen family resilience, improve dyadic relations between spouses, enhance parenting practices, reduce intergenerational enmeshment, and foster tolerance and trust among families with members with different historical backgrounds. This study aims to describe the process of developing MFHS and provide a detailed description of the principles, phases, and processes of change of the intervention. This multi-format intervention encompasses sessions involving a whole intergenerational group comprising at least four families, along with separate sessions for individual families, parents only, and youth only. By promoting multi-systemic resilience at the individual, family, and community level, MFHS offers a promising pathway for healing, reconciliation, and sustainable peacebuilding in post-conflict societies.