Mental Health Groups

Many professionals serving torture survivors find that group therapy is an effective and useful option.

Group therapy model for refugee and torture survivors

The paper discusses the Center for Torture and Trauma Survivors' therapy group model for torture survivors and describes two of its variants: The Bashal group for African and Somali women and the Bhutanese multi-family therapy group. Group therapies in this model extend to community healing. Groups develop their cohesion to graduate to a social community club or initiate a community organization. New graduates from the group join the club and become part of the social advocacy process and of group and individual support and community healing.

Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture Orientation Group 4-Week Group Therapy Manual for Clinicians

This manual, developed by Nancy Murakami, LCSW,  Hawthorne Smith, PhD, Katherine Porterfield, PhD, Maile O'Hara, PhD, and Melba Sullivan, PhD of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture is based on PSOT’s short-term, supportive, psycho-educational group therapy model.  Called the Orientation Group, this model was developed to address the psychosocial and adaptational needs for a population of survivors of torture and severe war trauma presenting to a clinic in a metropolitan public hospital.

For more information on this Orientation Group, and how the model can be used by torture

CVT Jordan: Using Stories to Break Silence

Torture and war can have a negative effect on communication within a family. To address this, CVT staff in Jordan conducted innovative storytelling counseling sessions with two groups of fathers and teenagers. The theme focused on “breaking the silence” to help improve communication among Iraqi refugees who have survived torture and war trauma.

Group Treatment for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma: A Literature Review

This new literature review was coauthored by The National Capacity Building Project at the Center for Victims of Torture, the National Partnership for Community Training at Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, and an expert in the torture rehabilitation field. It was published in Torture Journal (Vol. 26 No. 1).

Group treatment is an approach that can be used with larger groups of survivors and addresses a range of treatment issues. The authors examined key clinical practice issues for group treatment, including group composition and content, facilitation, and measurement strategies. The article points to a growing interest in the topic of group treatment for survivors of torture and severe violence, providing a comprehensive picture of group-based interventions, and highlighting the need for additional research and knowledge-building.

Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture 1 - The Orientation Group: PSOT's Approach to Welcoming and Further Resourcing

With this webinar, the NCB Project began a series:  Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture.
 
Survivors of Torture programs across the US are creating and using innovative and effective techniques in providing treatment services through groups. In this series, we will feature three torture rehabilitation programs that are conducting group treatment, within Judith Herman's three-staged framework - as written about in her book, Trauma and Recovery.
 
The first session in this series took place on March 18th at 2:00 PM EDT and features Melba Sullivan of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of

Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture 2 - Stage Two Remembrance and Mourning

Reflections on a Women's Psychotherapy Group at the Center for Victims of Torture

With this webinar, the NCB Project continues a series:  Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture.

Survivors of Torture programs across the US are creating and using innovative and effective techniques in providing treatment services through groups. In this series, we will feature three torture rehabilitation programs that are conducting group treatment, within Judith Herman's three-staged framework - as written about in her book, Trauma and Recovery.

This webinar is the second in the NCB Project’s three-part series

Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture 3 - Reconnecting Survivor Communities at the International Institute of Connecticut

Description

This webinar is the third in the NCB Project’s three-part series on Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture.  In the series, the NCB Project will highlight three Survivors of Torture programs that are using innovative techniques to provide group treatment.

“Beauty School” is an innovative 12-session, client-led, women-only task group developed by the International Institute of Connecticut (IICONN).  Combining client self-care with environmental mastery, Beauty School promotes survivor engagement and community integration via life skills speakers and neighborhood field trips.

Group Work with Survivors of Torture: Engaging Communities

Group interventions can have a number of benefits for organizations providing services to survivors of torture and their clients, but can also present unique challenges. For many organizations the ability to extend their work with survivors of torture through community-based organizations may be a useful approach.  Using a consultative model, this two-part webinar series will look at what SoT programs can do to create their own group interventions, as well as working effectively with community–based organizations to facilitate interventions in the larger community.

Group Work with Survivors of Torture: Engaging Communities e-Consultation

This e-consultation follows the webinar on Group Work with Survivors of Torture: Engaging Communities. See that webinar for additional resources and learning objectives.

The discussion focuses on these questions and issues:

  • How did your organization determine that you would implement group work? 
  • How did your organization determine what kinds of groups you would implement? 
  • What challenges have you encountered in implementing your group and how have you addressed them?
  • What insights have you gained in doing group work? 
  • What are the challenges of doing Group work with SOTs in two languages?
  • How do

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