On a visit to the Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh, a scene that stayed with Simon Rosenbaum, Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW, was seeing children playing soccer. The match was led by a local coach who knew every name and each story.
“Sometimes you’d see hundreds of people gathered for a single game,” Simon recalls. “For those ninety minutes, the pitch wasn’t just a place to play; it was a space for connection. For belonging. It was where people got a break from the relentless challenges they were facing.”
That moment built on a foundation already laid through years of research. As part of Simon’s PhD, he led the first study investigating the role of exercise in supporting people living with severe PTSD. His work played a key role in advancing the understanding of physical activity as a credible, research-supported intervention in the treatment of trauma and mental health conditions.
The visit to Cox’s Bazar reframed the question.
“It wasn’t just about proving that exercise works,” he explains. “It pushed me to ask: ‘how do we deliver these interventions in ways that are culturally meaningful, trauma-informed, and accessible to the people we hope will benefit?’”
The importance of co-design
Back in Australia, that insight helped shape a mission that now defines much of Simon’s work — co-designing physical activity services with communities. Including people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds, ensuring programs are embedded in trusted settings and built around safety, dignity and inclusion.
Exercise and nutrition as therapeutic tools
Simon now co-leads the NExuS research group at UNSW, short for Nutrition, Exercise and Social Equity, a cross-disciplinary team of exercise physiologists, dietitians and food security experts, physiotherapists, psychologists and public health experts. The team investigates how exercise and nutrition can be used as therapeutic tools for people facing systemic disadvantage.
Physical activity programs without barriers
One example is Addi Moves, a free, community-based physical activity service in Marrickville’s Addison Road Community Centre. The program, co-designed with people from refugee backgrounds, focuses on removing barriers that often prevent participation: cost, language, safety, and stigma.
“It is a dedicated space run by accredited exercise physiologists where we provide access to free, supportive, trauma-informed and culturally responsive physical activity programs including people with an asylum seeker or refugee background, particularly women, in a safe, welcoming space where they can ‘move their mood’. By this I’m referring to experiencing the mental and physical benefits of exercise.”
“It’s a space giving people access to these programs who typically wouldn’t, because we know that movement and activity can have such an impact on how we feel.”
Simon describes the space as a ‘not gym’ – minus the mirrors, loud music and sign-up fees.
“It’s where movement is a pathway to healing, in a space designed by the people it serves.”
The program was co-designed with asylum seekers and refugees to be free, inclusive, and flexible. It offers group exercise sessions, informal play, and links to other community supports like Thread Together, a source of clothing for single parents, and Joy of Giving, a hub for pre-loved toys.
At its heart, Addi Moves embodies a simple idea: when physical activity is made safe, welcoming and accessible, it can be an agent of change – for improved mental wellbeing, community connection and a soft, destigmatising entry point into other health and social services.
Moving mood
After a single Addi Moves session, the data shows participants are reporting improved mood. Of the more than 2,000 sessions run since 2022, the pattern still holds true.
“These are people facing intersectional disadvantage — mental illness, trauma histories, and yet with supported movement, we are seeing that something is shifting.”
“We know from the data that people feel better. And sometimes, that moment is the ‘opening up’ they need to engage with other supports,” Simon says.
The concept embodied in Addi Moves is being extended through initiatives like SportCoach+, which trains coaches to deliver community-based, trauma-informed movement programs in contexts affected by war and displacement.
From pitch to policy
What began with a local coach on a dusty pitch in Cox’s Bazar has grown into an international research agenda, a community-based service, and a new way of thinking about how movement, mental health, and care intersect.
And Simon’s goal? To redefine how physical activity and nutrition are embedded within systems of care, especially for communities who have historically been underserved due to intersecting experiences of trauma, displacement, and systemic exclusion.
About Simon Rosenbaum
Simon Rosenbaum is a Professor in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW Sydney and the co-lead of the NExuS research group (Nutrition, Exercise, and Social Equity). His research focuses on the intersection of physical activity and mental health, particularly for populations exposed to trauma and social disadvantage.