Morgan, LeonaNadar, SarojiniKeygnaert, Ines2026-06-252026-06-252025Morgan, L., Nadar, S. and Keygnaert, I., 2025, October. Healing Bodies, Healing Communities: A Community-Based Qualitative Study of Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Trauma in South Africa. In Healthcare (Vol. 13, No. 20, p. 2601). MDPI.https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13202601https://hdl.handle.net/10566/24715Highlights: Body-based care models respond better to long-term, intergenerational and somatic aspects of sexual trauma in survivors being historically excluded from mental health care. Co-creation of care pathways ensures culturally sensitive approaches that are responsive to lived experiences of marginalized survivors of childhood sexual trauma. What are the main findings? Relational safety and somatic engagement were foundational to trauma recovery, enabling survivors to process trauma at their own pace and integrate dissociative experiences through embodied therapeutic praxis. Recovery was relational and continuous, with participants reporting increased peace, authenticity and social connection despite structural barriers, highlighting the effectiveness of culturally grounded, non-pathologizing care. What is the implication of the main finding? Integrative Trauma-Informed Care (ITIC) offers a culturally sensitive, adaptable framework that can be tailored to diverse communities and age groups, emphasizing embodied, intergenerational and relational healing. Decolonial and feminist approaches to mental health care can bridge epistemic gaps in ITIC praxes by centering survivors’ lived, embodied experiences, promoting sustainable and inclusive therapeutic models globally. Background: While sexual trauma is inherently an embodied experience, research on psychological interventions that is cognisant of geographic and socio-political community contexts within which embodied, therapeutic interventions occur remains limited. Decolonial, African and feminist community psychologies have noted this epistemic–ethical gap. Objectives: This paper explores the co-development of trauma-informed care pathways for adult survivors of childhood sexual trauma (CST) in under-resourced communities in Cape Town, South Africa. The study aimed to integrate intergenerational community knowledge, embodied therapeutic practices and collaborative approaches into locally relevant models of care. Methods: Drawing on feminist mental health frameworks, this qualitative study engaged 13 adult female survivors who identify as “coloured”.enadult survivorschildhood sexual traumacritical feminist praxisntegrated trauma-informed caremarginalized contextsArticle