The number of displaced people in the world has surged to more than 50 million, for the first time since World War II. The majority of those displaced are women and children. The inherent vulnerabilities of childhood are heightened for refugee and asylum seeking children who are at risk for both primary and secondary traumatic exposure. In this webinar we explore the unique needs and issues facing children displaced by violence. Child refugees and children seeking asylum are at risk for primary trauma, when they have been subjected to war, violence and even torture and as secondary survivors when family members are subjected to torture and human rights abuses. Recent SAMHSA funded initiatives have defined many evidenced based approaches for working with children; many of them are educational or cognitively and/or behaviorally focused. Dance/Movement Therapy is presented as a cross culturally adaptable treatment approach that has potential to become a best practice treatment, based on current researchers and theorists whose work will be highlighted, and who endorse more non-verbal, creative and integrated therapeutic approaches to childhood trauma.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify unique themes and issues informing mental health needs that face children displaced by war and human rights abuses.
2. Understand a revised behavioral health conceptual paradigm for trauma-informed mental health approaches to working with child survivors of human rights abuses and war.
3. Learn a specific approach to using DMT in the treatment of child refugees and survivors of human rights abuse, through the sharing of a case examples.

Continuing Education Credits: 1.0 ADTA CE, 1.0 NBCC CE, 1.0 NY LCAT CE

Presenter Bio:

Amber Elizabeth Gray, PhD, BC-DMT is a long-time human rights activist and pioneer in the use of Dance/Movement Therapy with survivors of trauma, particularly torture, war, and human rights abuses. She is an ADTA Outstanding Achievement Award recipient; a recent nominee for The Barbara Chester Human Rights award, and featured expert on torture treatment through Tulane University’s Institute of Traumatology. Amber’s expertise is represented in many published articles, chapters, keynote addresses, professional collaborations, and presentations around the world. Amber has provided clinical training on the integration of refugee mental health and torture treatment with creative arts, mindfulness, and body-based therapies to more than 30 programs worldwide. She is the originator of Polyvagal-informed Dance/Movement and Soma-Movement Therapies, developed over 20+ years of immersion in The Polyvagal Theory, and Restorative Movement Psychotherapy, a resiliency-based framework and clinical approach for somatic, mindfulness and dance/movement therapies with refugees and survivors of torture war trauma.