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Mind & Body Therapies
“I can't remember how long they’d been torturing me. I was suspended from
a hook in with my legs and arms tied behind me and they attached electrodes to my body. Every time they shocked me, my body convulsed and the pain shot through me. They swore at me saying: ‘Look – the fucker is smiling, give him more electricity.’ I started smelling burning and saw smoke rising and realised it was me! I don't remember anything after that.”
Algerian torture survivor
The whole point of torture is to break down the victim’s psychological defenses and sense of identity. The aftermath often results in a profoundly impaired relationship between mind and body. We have developed ways of working holistically with survivors of torture in a safe and supportive environment that has proved critical to their recovery.
Somato-psychotherapy is a combination of body work and psychotherapy. Trauma does not simply exist in the mind. It is held in the body and can be reflected in something as simple posture. One of our patients walked with a chronic slouch, his face locked downwards. As his therapist encouraged him to walk more upright, he became terrified and said: “In prison there are no horizons. If you looked up you could be beaten, or witness something unspeakable. I do not want to walk like I am still in prison.”
We work with people from many cultures where the accepted way of expressing your feelings is through your body language. So we employ sensory movement activities such as Yoga, Tai-Chi, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Work which help people reconnect with their bodies. We are also building a small team of volunteer physiotherapists to address the muscular skeletal injuries.
