Physical Therapy /Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy (Physical Therapy: these terms will be used interchangeably on this website) is a growing field in the area of torture survivor treatment. Survivors of torture are often affected by chronic pain and by difficulty in carrying out functional activities.

Research carried out by Dignity-Danish Institute Against Torture suggests that up to 80% of torture survivors could benefit from receiving physiotherapy. A worldwide survey of torture treatment centers carried out by the Center for Victims of Torture staff shows that a majority of clients receive physical therapy 51% of the time when there is a physiotherapist on staff and 20% of the time when there is not.

The physiotherapy area of the HealTorture webpage has been created in order to help physiotherapists and other members of the team treating torture survivors to have a site where they can go to learn more about physiotherapies’ role in helping survivors to heal.

We encourage people who are serving survivors to submit resources to this website using this form or by emailing [email protected](link sends e-mail).

Some of the linked articles will appear in more than one section.

See the list below to navigate this portion of HealTorture.org.

• Introduction
• Evaluation
• Treatment
• Pain
• Body awareness & self-regulation
• Special topics
• Complementary therapies