Special Stuckenberg Talk - Helping Refugees Heal, One Moment at a Time: Psychological Science with a Social Justice Mission

Abstract: The global human rights crisis of forced displacement has led to a global mental health crisis among tens of millions of refugees and asylum-seekers in communities around the world. Exacerbating the crisis, forcibly displaced people are often marginalized and exposed to institutional and communal inequities, discrimination, and systemic injustice post-displacement. Yet, despite the magnitude, urgency, and projected growth of this global crisis, our collective scientific knowledge and capacity to prevent and heal the devastation of forced displacement is years behind the challenge. In this context, I will share my group’s work to help build a clinical psychological science dedicated to mental health and restorative social justice among forcibly displaced people. I will describe how we have collaborated with, and worked to empower, diverse communities of refugees and asylum-seekers to heal and thrive through a community-embedded and inter-cultural mobile laboratory. In particular, I will focus on theory and data that led to development of a mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention program, that is trauma-sensitive and socio-culturally-adapted for refugee communities. I will highlight randomized clinical trial findings that point to thetransformative potential of mindfulness and compassion training to help refugees cultivate moments of refuge and safety, and thereby, initiate a process of recovery and healing. I will also describe my group’s efforts (and struggles) todevelop a digital mobile-health adaptation of the program, designed to scale-up its global reach, access and impact. Finally, I will share my vision for the Moments of Refuge Project – a research and social impact initiative dedicated to mental health and restorative social justice among survivors of conflict, collective trauma and forced displacementaround the world.