Mindfulness for refugees

We offer trauma-sensitive mindfulness courses to asylum seekers and refugees.

Poor mental health

According to the Mental Health Foundation, asylum seekers and refugees are more likely to experience poor mental health than the local population, including higher rates of depression, PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Increased vulnerability to mental health problems is linked to pre-migration experiences (such as war trauma) and post-migration conditions (such as separation from family, difficulties with asylum procedures, poor housing and homelessness). In addition, hostility from host communities can further compound the issues facing already traumatised people.

Asylum seekers are five times more likely to have mental health needs than the general population, and more than six in ten will experience severe mental distress. In spite of this, asylum seekers are less likely to receive support than the general population.

Trauma-informed mindfulness for refugees

Mindfulness Across Borders is a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive mindfulness course created by Ariana Faris and Sheila Webb with funding from the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation. The design is based on a project piloting courses in trauma-adapted and culturally-sensitive Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for refugee and asylum-seeking communities. The curriculum was co-produced with refugees and is sensitive to the experience and traumas that individuals may have faced.

Collaborating to support refugees

The original pioneers of the curriculum ran the course with four groups of women refugees in Cardiff and London in 2016. With the support of Ariana Faris, one of the two original pioneers, the Sussex Mindfulness Centre ran the programme for two groups of women refugees in Brighton in 2023.

Dr Lana Jackson and Julia Powell for the Sussex Mindfulness Centre, had Ariana Faris as their supervisor, and together they further developed the programme.

Photo of the hands of women refugees involved in a mindfulness course in Cardiff
Hands of the women in a group in Cardiff. Photo credit: Ariana Faris

Together we provided women with a safe and empowering space to connect with themselves and each other, learn tools for wellbeing and stress management, and cultivate greater acceptance, self-compassion, and resilience under extremely challenging circumstances.

When is the next course?

We hope to run the next course in Sussex in early 2025, and are actively seeking funding to make this happen. If you would like to be involved or would like to support this work, please contact Kate Webb, at kate.webb@spft.nhs.uk.