“Now I understand about hope,” said Francine, a woman who escaped from a country in Africa which she chose not to name, and fled to Kalobeyei refugee camp in Kenya where she found CVT. She came for care and took steps to start building a new life. After all she had lived through, psychosocial support changed her life. She said, “Now I see that I have meaning as a human being.”

For 40 years, the Center for Victims of Torture has been extending interdisciplinary rehabilitative care to survivors of torture in our global clinics. Our clients are refugees and internally displaced people for whom we provide individual and group counseling, physiotherapy and social work services.  

Why is this important?

Torture destroys lives. And when lives are purposely demolished, the devastation spreads. This creates fear and instability. No one deserves to be tortured. In addition, communities need stability and a sense of wellbeing in order to thrive. Torture is always about spreading fear and sowing confusion and conflict. Standing against torture helps all of us live better together.

Healing and the Power of Hope

At CVT, we have spent decades speaking to our clients about torture: what was done to them, how they responded, how they escaped, how they are coping, how they will be able to go on with their lives.

It’s clear that torture survivors have endured unspeakable horrors. As human beings, most people feel the impulse to help people who have been treated with deliberate cruelty and suffering. But having an empathetic heart is only one reason that it is so important to support survivors. Defending and backing survivors means standing against torture.

Defending and backing survivors means standing against torture.”

Torture is meant to be cruel, painful and menacing. It is meant to break down a person’s sense of self. When that is done to you, it takes work to rebuild trust in other people. It is very difficult to take these steps alone, which is where mental health and psychosocial support comes in.

When people summon the courage and begin healing after torture, they often speak about hope. They speak about finding a sense of self once again. “Where do I see hope?” asked a client in Gulu, Uganda. “For me, hope is that I realize I am important. CVT are the ones who helped me realize this.”

Clients also tell us the importance of having other people support them as they work through their trauma. As counselors and, in group sessions, other survivors hear and acknowledge their stories, clients feel stronger. The voices of the torturers lessen. As David, who came for care in Minnesota, said, “The torturers’ words do not limit me anymore.”

The torturers’ words do not limit me anymore.”

-David, former client, St. Paul Healing Center

As part of therapy, CVT clinicians also speak to survivors about how to reconnect with their families and their communities. Ameer, a client from Syria who came to CVT in Jordan, spoke about how torture and displacement fractured his connect with his family. He said, “In addition to learning about how to build and maintain relationships with others in the community, I have learned how to rebuild and maintain relationships with my children.” 

Rebuilding Stable Communities

When one life is intentionally shattered, the impacts spread beyond the victim. Torture is personal, but it reaches much farther, creating fear within communities as soon as word gets out that someone has been taken and tortured. It silences people. They understand what will be done to them if they speak up.

Torture creates stigma as well, and some survivors live with shame for what was done to them even though it was far beyond their control. Over even short periods of time, the trauma experienced by one person, then two, then three, spreads widely. When widespread trauma goes untreated, families and communities can be damaged for generations.

So how do you address community-wide trauma? First, healing is needed for survivors, but then support is required for civil society organizations and people in healing professions. For example, in 2024, CVT extended healing care to nearly 24,800 survivors and their family members. In addition, we provided capacity development support to over 160 organizations which also care for survivors. This multiplies by thousands the numbers of people whose lives are touched by healing and hope. Counseling, physiotherapy and social work services require highly specialized approaches and skills when work with people who have endured the most extreme cruelty imaginable. Developing the capacity of healing work globally makes a difference for an enormous number of survivors, across a range of countries.

There are many additional ways that CVT reaches community members, including psychoeducational workshops, community engagement programs and many types of training. Each interaction helps bring hope and strength as people work to stand against torture.

Why Should the United States Support Survivors of Torture?

When the U.S. supports work on the ground in refugee communities and with people who have been displaced after armed conflict or persecution, the care is recognized. This builds the United States’ reputation as a leader and as a caring hand in the world. The work not only saves lives but builds good will and solidarity among workers, families, community leaders, as well as clients.

From our decades of clinical work, we also know that where there are few resources and low access to mental health care, people are at greater risk of further psychological harm – untreated trauma can lead to depression and anxiety, even thoughts of suicide.

After CVT I met people, it gave me hope for a future. I started life as a human being over again.”

-Former client, CVT Jordan

Throughout our 40 years, CVT has worked closely with elected officials and administrations, both republican and democrat, to support U.S. foreign policy objectives that benefit when we improve the safety, health and wellbeing of the populations we serve. And in these years, our clients have come from more than 80 countries where they were tortured. Through healing and hope, we show the dictators and torturers that their efforts to destroy and silence communities don’t work. As a client from our program in Jordan said, “After CVT I met people, it gave me hope for a future. I started life as a human being over again.”

Healing generates hope. Hope inspires progress, growth and change.

Client names have been changed for confidentiality and security purposes.