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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.

Introduction: In developing countries where torture is perpetrated, there are few resources for the provision of therapeutic assistance to the survivors. The testimonial method represents a brief cross-cultural psychosocial approach to trauma, which is relatively easy to master. The method was first described in Chile in 1983 and has since been used in many variations in different cultural contexts. In this project the method has been supplemented by culture-specific coping strategies (meditation and a delivery ceremony)., Methods: A pilot training project was undertaken between Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture victims (RCT) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and People's Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR) in Varanasi, India, to investigate the usefulness of the testimonial method. The project involved the development of a community-based testimonial method, training of twelve PVCHR community workers, the development of a manual, and a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system comparing results of measures before the intervention and two to three months after the intervention. Twenty-three victims gave their testimonies under supervision. In the two first sessions the testimony was written and in the third session survivors participated in a delivery ceremony. The human rights activists and community workers interviewed the survivors about how they felt after the intervention., Findings: After testimonial therapy, almost all survivors demonstrated significant improvements in overall WHO-five Well-being Index (WHO-5) score. Four out of the five individual items improved by at least 40%. Items from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) showed less significant change, possibly because the M&E questionnaire had not been well understood by the community workers, or due to poor wording, formulation and/or validation of the questions. All survivors expressed satisfaction with the process, especially the public delivery ceremony, which apparently became a "turning point" in the healing process. Seemingly, the ceremonial element represented the social recognition needed and that it re-connected the survivors with their community and ensured that their private truth becomes part of social memory., Discussion: Although this small pilot study without control groups or prior validation of the questionnaire does not provide high-ranking quantitative evidence or statistically significant results for the effectiveness of our version of the testimonial method, we do find it likely that it helps improve the well being in survivors of torture in this particular context. However, a more extensive study is needed to verify these results, and better measures of ICF activities and participation (A&P) functions should be used. Interviews with human rights activists reveal that it is easier for survivors who have gone through testimonial therapy to give coherent legal testimony.