Offers insights from a group of clinical psychologists and other professionals who traveled from the United States to work with adolescents in a refugee camp in Subotica, Serbia, near the border with Hungary. The group’s objective was to teach peer counseling so that the adolescents could learn to use the skills of active listening and the techniques of problem solving to counsel their friends. However, the group quickly realized that the adolescents’ needs went deeper than peer counseling training. Among the group’s observations were that: virtually every child in the camp had a relative harmed in the war raging in the former Yugoslavia; and the effects of war had rendered the children passive, yet also highly distrustful of the intentions of others, including these Americans attempting to teach them communication skills. Over time, the group was able to form durable relationships with the adolescents and to set the stage for the youth to form meaningful relationships with one another. The communications skills imparted to the adolescents helped them survive the ups and downs of their personal relationships, and the adolescents continued to meet regularly after the Americans left.
