Culturally Adapted CBT for Refugees

Culturally Adapted CBT (CA CBT) is a transdiagnostic treatment approach developed by Hinton et al. (2011), adapted for the treatment of PTSD among traumatized refugees and ethnic minority  populations. It includes psychoeducation on PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, and anger; a focus on somatic sensation including exposure and re-association; somatic-focused techniques like stretching and Yoga exercises; and multiple emotion regulation techniques such as meditation and somatic-focused techniques like those mentioned above.

We conducted a pilot study with 9 male refugees from Afghanistan and Iran (Kananian et al., 2017) and a pilot group with 6 female refugees from Syria (publication in preparation). At the moment, we’re carrying out an individual treatment trial with Syrian refugees as an additional pilot study.

The research is conducted in close collaboration with Devon Hinton from Harvard University, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

The development and implementation of CA-CBT within the Counselling Center for Refugees has been supported by grants of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft, the Freund und Förderer der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, and Main First Bank. We want to express our gratitude for this generous support of our work.