For immediate publication

18 October 2018

The Team of Life: Using football to provide therapeutic support

"It was good being able to talk about problems that at other times would be bottled up."

This is feedback from one of 17 men detained at Heathrow ImmigrationRemoval Centre (IRC) who had just experienced a therapeutic approach that used football to give them an opportunity to think about how to cope with their hardships and traumatic experiences without having to speak directly about them.

The approach is known as the Team of Life (first developed by David Denborough). It uses sport to help people reflect on their previous accomplishments and recognise how they have overcome obstacles with the help of those around them - their life team. It aims to help build resilience at times of adversity.

It has been used in community services with adolescents and with communities with refugee and asylum seeker populations with trauma histories, but it is believed this is the first time this has been used in a secure immigration setting.

During the day-long workshop, attendees and staff played football and also used the footballing metaphor to have discussions about what was important to them, their identity, their skills and strengths, and their life stories. The day was open to anyone who wanted to attend.

Senior Clinical Psychologist, Dr Alison Christie, said: "We thought the sporting theme would interest many of the men in the centre, particularly those that might not have otherwise come into contact with the 'mental health team', perhaps due to stigma or not wanting 'talking therapy'."

Feedback has been positive so the IRC psychologists are already planning on running this again having found that this approach engaged people better than other therapeutic groups run at the IRC.

Dr Christie said: "We hope to run another Team of Life, may be involving cricket, in order to appeal to a different set of men in the centre.

"We chose football because we thought it would have a wider appeal than other sports and would be the best understood.

"Playing it was also a very important aspect of the day. We had some who had injuries or did not own trainers, but everyone was keen to join in and were encouraged to participate as coaches and/or supporters or to play as much as they could.

"They were also encouraged to observe the skills and strengths in those who were playing to feedback at a later stage. We found everyone had an important role in the practical football session and could take part regardless of skill or circumstance."

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