Allen Keller, MD

Asylum Network Volunteer

"The horrible thing is that torture happens and has devastating health and mental consequences, but there's a lot we can do to help people."

Asylum Network

Stories of Survival

Testimonial Therapy: Three Stories from Sudan

Stuart Lustig, M.D.

The testimonies appearing here were taken by a child psychiatrist from three brave survivors of Sudan’s Civil War who now live in the United States. The related events are typical of thousands of other children fleeing Sudan, but the individual reactions to the experiences are unique. All of these testimonials are written in the young advocates’ own words, and appear here with their prior permission.

People in war-torn regions of the world endure life-threatening horrors and atrocities that most people know about only through distant news reports. For those who have never experienced such suffering first hand, it is difficult to imagine the anger, confusion, and psychological trauma survivors endure. For many survivors, talking with a trained therapist can help them to grieve losses, learn ways to cope, and explore different ways of understanding difficult circumstances.

Many survivors have extremely important stories to tell – stories that provide vital information about abhorrent living conditions and human rights abuses in their home countries. Two factors, however, tend to inhibit the recording of these cautionary narratives. First, most survivors simply are never asked to relate them. Second, few survivors of human rights abuses seek psychotherapy, because not every culture endorses psychological exploration, and because psychiatric care is often highly stigmatized. These concerns often foreclose one possible means of achieving a degree of comfort with revisiting, and relating, painful experiences

Testimonial therapy, provided through trained psychotherapists, bridges the gap that prevents traumatized, new arrivals from telling their important stories and from receiving the benefits of psychotherapeutic support. While mental health workers believe the process of talking about traumatic experiences alone can be helpful, the focus of testimonials is on collaborating and documenting, with the intended outcome of using the testimonial for purposes of educating an uninformed public and advocating for justice. By shifting the emphasis from a clinical to a political agenda, those who do not subscribe to psychological treatment may nevertheless come forward to be heard. There is great benefit from seeing oneself as an empowered spokesperson rather than as a voiceless victim. The therapist allows the survivor as much control over the story-telling as possible, including the amount of information shared and how fast the testifier wishes to reveal it. A transcript is created, and the testifier has the final say in its exact wording and eventual distribution. Having survived random events with no ability to influence their outcome, assuming control over the story is an important step towards healing. The therapist, meanwhile, works to ensure that the testimonial process is not overwhelmingly painful.