POLYRHYTHMS for Queer Refugees

POLYRHYTHMS for Queer Refugees
An initiative founded with the goal of providing LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers with the tools and resources they need to cope with intense experiences of trauma and re-traumatization.

LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersexual, asexual, and identities and sexualities that transgress these categories.

This 12-month pilot project combines Systemic Coaching techniques with TaKeTiNa® rhythms method —a unique embodied approach providing participants with a greater sense of psychological stability and emotional resilience.

What is trauma?
Trauma researcher Luise Reddemann defines Trauma as "...an extreme experience of loss..." ― loss of trust, hope, stability, security, justice, and meaning. Trauma is expressed through the body and comes in many different ways, including anxiety, depression, sleeping and eating disorders, flashbacks, panic attacks, and dissociation.

The short and long-term impacts of cPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder) are detrimental to an individual's emotional and physical well-being, as well as their sense of self-worth and ability to function day-to-day.

The POLYRHYTHMS pilot project is]catered to the needs of a group of refugees from Cameroon and Venezuela from the Queer Refugees Network (QRN), a refugee support network initiated by Rosa Linde e.V., an LGBTQIA+ association in Leipzig.

The individualized Systemic Coaching sessions will take place with Ali Schwartz with the aim of stabilisation. In an environment of respect and appreciation, a trauma sensitive space will be created for each individual's self-determined healing process to take place.
The focus of this treatment is on empowerment methods and mindfulness-based stress-reduction tools to prevent reactivating symptoms of PTSD.

In the TaKeTiNa® sessions led by Matthias Schirmer, rhythm is used as a tool to strengthen inner-qualities such as intuition and inner balance, as well as social-qualities such as resilience and community belonging.
The body becomes an instrument that is building complex rhythms using steps, clapping, and voice. In this process, participants learn how to fall in and out of the flow of the rhythm and the nervous system learns how to adapt to external and internal blockages in a more sustainable and creative way.

This project is successful if in the future, as proof of concept, more programs like these can be developed.

If you believe that everybody, regardless of their legal status has a right to mental health resources and healing, then please support this project and make it a reality.

For many LGBTQIA+ refugees, trauma is a permanent companion. Its weight can't be measured but it can be felt. Along with the challenges many refugees who arrive in Germany face with starting their new lives, many also carry overwhelming experiences of abuse and marginalisation.

Those who have been forced to flee their homes due to the continued threat of homophobic and transphobic violence, often experience further isolation and marginalisation when arriving in their assigned country of asylum.

According to a survey from the University of Leipzig in 2019, 50% of all refugees in Leipzig suffer from anxiety disorders or PTSD and require professional help. LGBTQIA+ refugees are especially vulnerable because of the intersectionality of their identities and yet are hardly considered by the overburdened health system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If we successfully reach our first funding goal of 10,000 Euros, a group of four LGBTQIA+ refugees will have the opportunity to participate in our intensive 3-month long POLYRHYTHMS pilot project.
This includes bi-weekly TaKeTiNa® sessions in a group setting, as well as bi-weekly individual systemic coaching coupled with language mediation led by professional translators. The process will be monitored and evaluated throughout.

If we reach our second funding goal of 16,500 Euros, a group of four LGBTQIA+ refugees will be able to participate in an ongoing 12-month long program of bi-weekly individual systemic coaching sessions and monthly TaKeTiNa® sessions.
This way, the process can go deeper, stressful experiences can be worked through, and new skills can be applied and integrated into everyday life situations. The process will be monitored and evaluated throughout as well.