Can Group Exercise Support Women After Trauma? Introducing Sarah Ford’s PhD Research

A new PhD project from the MHEX team at the University of Western Australia is investigating whether trauma-informed group exercise can support positive psychological adaptation in women following trauma.

Contributors: Sarah Ford, UWA PhD Candidate and Director of the Sarah Ford Foundation, supervised by A/Prof Bonnie Furzer and A/Prof Kemi Wright.

A new doctoral project is underway at UWA, and we are pleased to introduce the work of PhD Candidate Sarah Ford, who joins the MHEX team to examine group exercise as a way to support women following trauma. Sarah brings an unusual combination to the question. Alongside her research she is Director of the Sarah Ford Foundation and an award-winning group fitness instructor, so the project is grounded in practice as much as theory.

Why focus on trauma and exercise?

Trauma is common. An estimated three in four Australian adults will experience a traumatic event during their lifetime, and around 14% of Australian women will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point (AIHW, 2025; ABS, 2022). The effects can be lasting, shaping a person’s capacity to engage in everyday activities and health-promoting behaviours.

There is strong evidence that physical activity improves symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression. What is far less understood is how group exercise can be delivered so that women who have experienced trauma actually feel able to take part. Research with these women points to a specific set of barriers: feeling physically and psychologically unsafe in exercise settings, hypervigilance when sizing up a new environment, and a lack of programs designed with their needs in mind. Trauma-informed group exercise is rarely a routine part of recovery, and there is little to guide how such programs should be built.

Looking past symptom reduction

Most research on exercise and trauma is framed around reducing symptoms. Sarah’s project takes a different starting point, drawing on frameworks of trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth to ask whether group exercise can support positive psychological adaptation. That means looking at outcomes such as personal strength, resilience and hope, not only at whether distress goes down.

This matters because adaptation after trauma is not a single endpoint. People follow different trajectories, and for some, growth and difficulty sit side by side. Designing exercise around that fuller picture, rather than symptom scores alone, is part of what makes the project distinctive.

Designed with women who have lived experience

The research is guided by a feminist participatory approach and a structured co-design process. Women with lived experience of trauma are treated as partners throughout, helping to shape the content, delivery, accessibility and recruitment of the program rather than simply taking part at the end. Relevant stakeholders, including exercise professionals, health practitioners and support workers, contribute alongside them. The aim is a program built on what women say actually helps them feel safe enough to start and to keep going.

The research: three studies

Study 1: Scoping review

The first study maps existing research on what helps women who have experienced trauma take part in and stay engaged with exercise. It will consolidate the current evidence and identify the gaps that the later studies address.

Study 2: Survey, interviews and co-design

The second study uses online surveys and interviews with two groups, women who have lived experience of trauma and the practitioners who work with them, to understand the barriers and facilitators to participation in group exercise, and whether women feel group exercise has contributed to their own adaptation. These findings feed directly into a collaborative co-design process that shapes the intervention.

Study 3: A community pilot

The third study pilots the co-designed, trauma-informed group exercise program in a community setting, using a hybrid design that examines both how well it works and how well it can be delivered in practice. The program is expected to run over around 12 weeks, led by an exercise professional with additional trauma-informed training. Alongside feasibility measures such as demand, safety and acceptability, the study tracks post-traumatic growth, resilience and hope across the program.

Why this research matters

Trauma is widespread, and exercise is accessible, low-cost and already known to support mental health. What has been missing is a considered, evidence-informed way to bring the two together for women, delivered in a way they experience as safe. Sarah’s project sets out to build exactly that, and to strengthen the place of exercise within multidisciplinary trauma care rather than leaving it at the margins. The approach aligns with the 2026 ESSA Consensus Statement on the role of exercise physiologists in mental health, which several members of the MHEX team helped to author.

Stay updated

Sarah’s research will run across her candidature, with publications expected along the way. To follow her work and the broader MHEX research programme, subscribe via the MHEX website.

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