Silenced Trauma, Unresolved Loss: Creative Health to Bear Witness to Families of the Missing

Pascale Waschnig, Doctoral Researcher, University of West London, discusses the often overlooked emotional impact on families of missing people., leaving families with unresolved loss, grief, and trauma that are often overlooked by health services. This study uses art-based and narrative methods to amplify families’ voices, build creative communities, and embed lived experience into professional education, highlighting the urgent need for therapeutic frameworks that recognise the complexities of ambiguous loss.

The session will cover how to:

• To amplify the voices of those directly affected
• To provide creative, community-building activities that foster connection and healing.
• To integrate lived experience into medical, nursing, and psychotherapy education, using creative health approaches to strengthen empathy, recognition, and        compassion in care.

Click on the image to watch the video or here to view it on the NHS Education for Scotland Vimeo channel.

A transcript of this video can be found here.

Further information about the conference, including how to register, can be found on the NES Events website.