Working with people on an international level with heterogenous groups, we need to be able to absorb without prejudice what history, tradition and images appear to. This openness seems to be common to all those, who work successfully with people from different regions, although the strategies to achieve this state are different (Fürst 2006, 222).

Refugees and asylum seekers in Europe often suffer from psychological stress such as anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Their "foreignness" in “host societies” and the fact that many refugees have to adjust to a culturally different new society is an additional stress factor and burden. Xenophobia and racism contribute to this. People strongly feel their need to belong, they are motivated to be accepted and embraced by others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Group therapies according to the psychodrama method are considered excellent for resource and stability work, which both are seen as significant for traumatised people (Reddemann 2009, 282).

As soon as we talk about traumatized refugees and migration in “host countries”, we construct seemingly homogeneous groups: traumatized asylum seekers or migrants seeking jobs and welfare and the “autochthonous inhabitants” of so called “host countries”. Traumatised refugees are most commonly separated for their psychological and therapeutical treatment, and their treatment is individual. However, trauma has several societal prospects (Becker 2014, 59). On the other hand, “intercultural education” in European countries is also teached separated, with mostly just theoretical elements, and just few migrants are yet in teacher roles.

Aim of this presentation is to show, which contributions intercultural self-experience groups with asylum seekers, participants with other migrant biographies and participants without “noteworthy” migration background can contribute for a mutual understanding and “inclusion”. In the field of intercultural adult education, the group method of psychodrama (Moreno) has been proved with its resource and stability work.

All participants of four psychodrama based intercultural workshops, based in the field of intercultural adult education, analysed for this research were asked to sign consent forms in which they agreed that their personal reflections on the seminars could be used anonymously for research purposes. These were the group reflections of a total of about one hundred participants. Their feedback has been examined empirically. All interventions in the intercultural seminars have been critically analysed to describe how interventions are received in intercultural groups concerning their potentials for mutual, intercultural understanding and inclusion of the heterogenous participants. The group reflections we analysed comprised a total of almost 500 pages in A4 format. They were produced in the context of a total of five intercultural self-experience groups from 2016 to 2021, each of which brought together about 30 participants of different background. The sessions took place on at least two and a half weekends, half or full day, in the Austrian province of Kärnten/Koroška. We chose document analysis as the research design, the structuring qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (1985; 2002; 2008) as the evaluation method to structure the extensive data material and assign it to defined categories, and the deep hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” (“Szenisches Verstehen” according to Ottomeyer & Reichmayr, 2007, 257) as second method of evaluation to also work out hidden figures and patterns.

Conclusions can be summed up as follows: Intercultural seminars based in the field of adult education, can explicitly used for "intercultural" groups. That, for example, explicitly bring refugees and asylum seekers together with non-refugees over a longer period of time. Intercultural self-awareness groups are expressly suitable for creating "successful encounters" between students and refugees or asylum seekers invited to the seminar as guests, on a psychosocial and transcultural level. Concerning the methods and interventions of the psychodrama seminars, conclusions are: Participats described in their reflections, they succeeded very well in role reversal with refugees – they were able to empathise with refugees emotionally as well as affectively and culturally or situationally. On the other hand, refugee participants also clearly described having experienced human warmth, understanding, openness and encounter in the seminars in question. Amateur interpreters should be provided, if language levels of participants are lower. It can be stated that the psychodrama seminars in the field of adult education have enabled and continue to enable successful intercultural encounters. Concerning a balance between trauma therapy and educational self experience groups we can state: intercultural education workshops/seminars in this field should, by intention, have certain group therapeutical prospects, but not solely: the educational prospect can still remained focused.

Aydin, N., Kleber, J., Oelkrug, V., Leuschner, M. & Wutti, D. (2018). Wie kann Inklusion von Flüchtlingen gelingen? Der Universitätslehrgang „Inklusionsbegleiter*in“ an der Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt als Beispiel eines gelungenen Theorie-Praxis-Transfers. In A. Rohmann & S. Stürmer (Hrsg.), Die Flüchtlingsdebatte in Deutschland – Sozialpsychologische Perspektiven. Peter Lang. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497 Becker, D. (2014). Die Erfindung des Traumas. Verflochtene Geschichten. Psychosozial. Fürst, J. (2006). Psychodrama...Psykodrama...psicodrama.... In Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie 2/2006, 207-223. Mayring, P. (1985). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. In G. Jüttemann (Hrsg.), Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie. Grundfragen, Verfahrensweisen, Anwendungsfelder (S. 187-211). Beltz. Mayring, P. (2002). Einführung in die qualitative Sozialforschung. Eine Anleitung zum qualitativen Denken. Beltz. Mayring, P. (2008). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Beltz. Reddemann L. (2009). Gruppentherapie in der Traumabehandlung – die Gruppe als Ressource nutzen. In D. Mattke, L. Reddemann & B. Strauß (Hrsg.), Keine Angst vor Gruppen! Gruppenpsychotherapie in Praxis und Forschung. Klett- Cotta. Wutti, D. (2021). Flucht, Asyl und Trauma. Psychodramatische Interventionen in der interkulturellen Gruppentherapie. Abschlussthese am Department für Psychotherapie und Biopsychosoziale Gesundheit, Krems. Ottomeyer, K. & Reichmayr, J. (2007). Ethnopsychoanalyse und Tiefenhermeneutik. In J. Straub, A. Weidemann & D. Weidemann (Hrsg.), Handbuch interkulturelle Kommunikation und Kompetenz. Grundbegriffe, Theorien, Anwendungsfelder, J.B. Metzler.