Kosovo: History

In the fall of 1998, as the war in Kosovo was just beginning, The Center for Mind-Body Medicine founder and director, James S. Gordon, MD, along with Susan Lord, MD, went there to see how the CMBM psychosocial model might be helpful to a population in crisis. They went into the middle of this war with eyes open and hearts soft and they quickly fell in love with the people and place.

Six years later, our model — which combines psychological self-care, mind-body approaches and group support — has become a cornerstone of Kosovo’s new nationwide community mental health system.

Critical Milestones:

  • March 1999: NATO begins bombing Serbian military targets throughout Kosovo and Serbia as soldiers intensify the war on the ground and hundreds of thousands of Albanians are driven from their homes into refugee camps in neighboring Macedonia and Albania.
  • May 1999: CMBM holds first training program for Kosovar refugee physicians in Macedonia. Supported by the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).
  • September 1999: First full-scale CMBM training program is held in Kosovo with more than 150 in attendance, including teachers from Suhareka region.
  • November 1999: Teachers in Suhareka begin implementing the CMBM program with students in their high school.
  • February 2001: After completing three training programs in country, CMBM selects a local faculty comprised of leading psychiatrists and psychologists, who will train their colleagues and peers.
  • May 2002: An additional 170 health and mental health professionals are trained in the CMBM psychosocial model which is led by joint US/Kosovar faculty teams.
  • June 2003: September 2004: Three training programs are completed for all clinical staff of the national Community Mental Health Centers and are led entirely by the trained Kosovo faculty.
  • April 2004: A research study of the Suhareka teachers’ work with their students shows the extraordinary effectiveness of the program and is published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Click here to read
  • September 2004: The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s Professional Training in Mind-Body is the first program to be awarded continuing education credit hours by the Kosovo Ministry of Health.

Helpful Documents:

Dr. James Gordon's Kosovo Journal (PDF 75 KB)

Read article in Koha Ditore (Kosovo newspaper) (translated) (PDF 13 KB)

CMBM Research: "Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Postwar Kosovo High Sschool Students Using Mind-Body Skills Groups" (PDF 293 KB)

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The war murdered some of my classmates and it made me feel awful. I have nightmares. I hardly could eat anything. Meeting the social-psychologists and their methods of work brought about a great positive change in my personality. Now I feel much better, and keep practicing the same techniques at home. I appreciate the methods of James Gordon, whose advices I had the luck to be given personally.

— Albulena Berisha, 14 years old, Suharekë, Kosovë




It was a special miracle for me about how much mind-body techniques can offer mind / body / spirit of the human being, more precisely my own. I congratulate you on the work and engagement of Jim Gordon, his faculty and the whole local staff.

— Psychosocial Counselor — Mental Health Centre, Kosovo