Chapter 6: Psychological Services

This chapter focuses on identifying basic principles and areas of learning needed to begin providing mental health care to torture survivors living in the United States. The chapter is written for mental health providers who are relatively new to working with torture survivors. Providers may be called upon to offer any of a variety of psychological services to individuals, families, groups, or communities affected by torture, including crisis intervention, counseling, assessment, consultation, facilitation, supervision, and short- and long-term therapy.

This chapter is not intended as a “how to” rewards of working with survivors manual. Rather, it serves as a point of departure to help providers determine which types of knowledge or training they need to give qualified care. In addition, the authors offer a number of references of resources for learning.