Clinical psychologists' experiences of working with survivors of torture and the processes by which they manage such work

Torture is practised in many countries of the world as a tool of oppression and to
suppress dissent. Those fleeing such human rights abuses may present various
challenges to psychologists working in the UK, given that theoretical models of
distress typically do not account for the social, political and economic factors
involved in the infliction of torture, and given that the profession of clinical
psychology has traditionally taken a stance of political neutrality which may be
difficult ethically to sustain while working closely with the emotive content presented
by survivors of atrocities. There has been little systematic research on how clinicians
experience their work with refugees and asylum seekers who have been tortured, and
this study set out to explore the emotional impact on psychologists, the ways in which
they negotiate their professional role, and the frameworks they use to enable them to
make sense of carrying out such therapeutic work. Interviews with eight clinical
psychologists were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, and
themes relating to the impact of such work on clinicians, the context of the work, and
the psychological processes by which they manage these, are discussed. The
significance of these themes for theory, professional practice and service organisation
within the NHS are considered.

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