ABSTRACT

Refugees and asylum seekers often experience violent conflict, profound loss, and exposure to physical, sexual, and relational traumas. Psychotherapy approaches that involve the body and movement can address embodied trauma and other mental health concerns with culturally and linguistically adaptable interventions. This meta-synthesis examines 11 qualitative and case studies published since 2014 on the use of body-based interventions with refugees. The synthesis employs meta-ethnographic methodology and identifies themes related to three categories: considerations for clinicians and treatment, intervention elements, and reported therapeutic outcomes. Themes for clinicians and treatment included: cultural competence, language barriers, attending and attunement, and barriers to treatment. Intervention elements emphasised in the studies were safety, ritual, metaphor, and embodiment, while reported therapeutic outcomes consisted of here and now presence, freedom of expression, increased bodily awareness, improved physical health, and improved emotional experiencing. Suggestions for future research and clinical practice conclude the paper.