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With the arrival in Denmark of torture sur-vivors from Latin America in the nineteen seventies and eighties, therapists faced the challenge of how best to accompany the sur-vivors in their healing processes. The New Left and Feminism were important political movements which influenced the therapeu-tic approaches discussed at that time. In the author's meeting with Latin American col-leagues a dialogue about therapeutic methods was further developed with emphasis on the connection between "Human Rights and Mental Health". The civil war in the Balkans in the nineties brought new challenges: the development of psychosocial community in-terventions as well as an intensification of the debate between the "medical" and psycho-social approaches to trauma healing. Coop-eration during the last decade with NGOs in e.g., India, Cambodia, and Honduras brought new and more holistic perspectives on therapy represented by a brief version of Testimonial Therapy that sought to integrate cultural and spiritual traditions as well as "third wave" cognitive methods.

Introduction: Traumatizing events, such as torture, cause considerable impairments in psycho-social functioning. In developing countries, where torture is often perpetrated, few resources exist for the provision of therapeutic or rehabilitating interventions. The current study investigated the effectiveness of Testimonial Therapy (TT) as a brief psycho-social intervention to ameliorate the distress of Indian survivors of torture and related violence., Method: Three outcome measures (the WHO-5 Well-Being Scale, Social Participation-Scale and Pain and Anger Analogue) were compared before and after receiving TT, and semi structured interviews were conducted with survivors who had previously received TT., Findings: Participants showed significant improvements in emotional well-being, social participation, and self-perceived pain and anger. Furthermore, three qualitative interviews with survivors indicated that TT had a positive impact at the community level., Discussion: Although the study was conducted without a control group for comparison, TT appeared to be an effective method for improving well-being and ameliorating distress among survivors of torture. Furthermore, TT can potentially promote community empowerment. However, more research on this aspect is needed.