Soma Skills Program at Migrant Information Centre
Funded by the Migrant Information Centre (MIC) and subsidised by our Community Wellbeing Fund, this program at Mooroolbark College supported teenage girls with migrant and refugee backgrounds to build embodied and mindful skills for emotional regulation.
“I learnt many things about how to regulate my temper and my breathing when I’m feeling stressed.”
- Participant, Migrant Information Centre
Our Partner
The Migrant Information Centre supports young people aged 12-25 years from migrant, refugee, and culturally and linguistically-diverse (CALD) backgrounds residing in the Eastern Metropolitan Region who are:
disengaged or are at risk of disengaging from education, employment, family, and/or community;
displaying anti-social behaviours, or
entering in or at-risk of entering in the criminal justice system.
MIC program staff contacted Collective Being about delivering a group program specifically for young women accessing their service. The objective was to help them build accessible and useful strategies for emotional regulation as they navigate adolescence.
The Program
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Collective Being Facilitator and Programs Coordinator worked with Program Partner Staff to adapt our Soma Skills Program into a 6-week program specific to the experiences and needs of participants.
Soma Skills is a group work program integrating mindfulness and movement-based practices to support young people with self-regulation, stress-relief and social connection.
Identifying that it would be most supportive to deliver the program in a place the group already attends regularly, MIC staff arranged to hold it at Mooroolbark College.
So, for one hour a week for 6 weeks, we delivered our Soma Skills program onsite at Mooroolbark College, with MIC staff present to support.
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For teenage girls aged between 13-15 years attending Mooroolbark College who were also engaged in MIC services. All attendees had refugee and migration experiences.
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With the awareness that due to their religious beliefs, some young women would not participate in yoga practices, Collective Being facilitators ensured sessions focused on secular somatics and mindfulness-based practices, with psycho-education woven through.
The Outcomes
This program was attended by 12 students. An additional 6 young women attended a workshop we delivered in partnership with MIC in 2024.
Program participants reflected they enjoyed the program and identified they were incorporating practices they had learned in the program throughout their day when needed, had exercised choice-making during the sessions, and increased their awareness of sensations and feelings.
What Participants Say
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