Building Mental Health Support With Sanctuary Seekers

Building Mental Health Support With Sanctuary Seekers: Person-Led, Plural, and Trauma-Informed Approaches 

This interactive online session is based on the recently released book, The Migrant Art of Coping. The session explores why mental-health support is most effective when it is led by the person, shaped by culture, and grounded in trauma-informed practice. It examines the limits of Western therapeutic neutrality in sanctuary seeker contexts and shows how people often blend different forms of healing together (e.g., from community mentors and spiritual figures to formal services, peer networks, and online support). The session outlines the principles of person-led pluralism: support shaped by people’s priorities, cultural worlds, everyday realities, and the structural pressures they are navigating/resisting.