ABSTRACT
Most people who receive treatment after surviving torture are refugees and asylum-seekers. This chapter focuses on their needs. However, much will also be applicable to other people who may have been tortured, such as following political imprisonments, and people working in the armed forces. Using a composite case example and referring to relevant literature, this chapter focuses on how you can work cognitively with the shame, alienation, and dehumanization that often follow torture. It also briefly addresses, first, whether you should focus on treating post-traumatic reactions while clients might also have a range of serious social, economic, legal, and/or physical difficulties, and second, how you can modify traditional reliving treatments for traumatic stress for clients with multiple traumas, often extending over months and years.
