Abstract
This paper explores the place of complementary therapies in an integrated model of refugee health care at Foundation House, a leading torture and trauma rehabilitation service in Melbourne, Australia. At Foundation House counselling and complementary therapies are practised collaboratively. The paper is based on two independent qualitative research projects: one project examined refugee women’s experiences of complementary therapies and the second investigated counsellors’ reasons for referral to complementary therapies. The rationale for combining the two research projects in this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of this integrative model of health care that has not previously been documented. We formulate the areas of commonality in our findings under three ‘modes of action’: relationship, cultural familiarity and somatic presentations. Our combined findings extend current notions of holistic refugee health care to include culturally familiar health care practices in the form of complementary therapies. These therapies give primacy to caring for the complexity that is the ‘refugee body’: the amalgamation of physical pain with the complex social, political and cultural factors that define the refugee experience.
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