Testimonial Psychotherapy in Immigrant Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Case Series

Abstract

Testimonial psychotherapy is a therapeutic ritual for facilitating the recovery of survivors of human rights violations that focuses on sharing the trauma narrative. Originally developed in Chile as a method for collecting evidence during legal proceedings, testimonial therapy has been widely applied transculturally as a unique treatment modality for populations that are not amenable to traditional Western psychotherapy. In this case report, we first review the literature on testimonial therapy to this date. We go on to describe how testimonial therapy has been specifically adapted to facilitate recovery for immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). We present three Latin American women who underwent testimonial psychotherapy while receiving psychiatric treatment at a Northern Virginia community clinic affiliated with the George Washington University. The therapy consisted of guided trauma narrative sessions and a Latin- American Catholic inspired reverential ceremony in a Spanish-speaking women's domestic violence group. In this case series we provide excerpts from the women's testimony and feedback from physicians who observed the ceremony. We found that testimonial psychotherapy was accepted by our three IPV survivors and logistically feasible in a small community clinic. We conceptualize testimonial psychotherapy as a humanistic therapy that focuses on strengthening the person. Our case report suggests testimonial psychotherapy as a useful adjunct to formal psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress symptoms.

“I’d Go from a Mountain Top and Tell My Story”: Perspectives of Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence on Storytelling for Social Change

“…Our results affirm previous findings about the potential therapeutic value of storytelling for survivors of violence, including IPV (Dichter et al, 2019;Lakshmin et al, 2018;Nelson et al, 2016). Therapeutic approaches that are grounded in narrative and constructionist frameworks have recognized the healing nature of reflecting on and sharing one's story (Lim, Valdez & Lillie, 2015).…”

“…There is a small and recently growing body of literature about IPV survivors’ sharing their stories of IPV. Storytelling can contribute to reducing IPV survivors’ experiences of isolation and stigma (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020) and increasing survivor well-being and healing from the impacts of IPV (Lakshmin et al, 2018). Women's reflections on telling their stories through research interviews and other forums reveal therapeutic benefits (Dichter et al, 2019; O’Neill, 2018; Taylor, 2002).…”

Therapeutic improvisation in Cambodia: Moderated exposure, the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes, and the quest to weave the “world’s longest krama”

“…Although initially curated to justify Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia to a potentially hostile international audience, it had now been repurposed for a number of donor-backed activities related to reconciliation, justice, education, and “truth telling.” Staff at TPO thus thought the site would complement the adapted form of TT that the NGO first began administering in 2009 as a form of “reparation” associated with the country’s transitional justice efforts. TT was first codified as a therapeutic method in the 1970s after activists who took the testimonies of victims of state-sponsored violence in Chile noticed the process seemed to have a cathartic effect (Agger and Jensen, 1990; Lakshmin et al, 2018). In a subsequent article published using pseudonyms, the activists introduced testimony as a therapeutic method and tied it to Freud’s work emphasizing the importance of verbal narration of trauma for achieving psychic relief (Cienfuegos and Monelli, 1983).…”

Haunting details: A mixed‐methods study on predictors of details recalled from a victim narrative

“…To cope with abuse, many victims attempt to make sense of their abuse through storytelling, interpreting the events and connecting them to larger self‐narratives, and by sharing their stories (Discola, 2020; Park & George, 2013). Storytelling can reduce victims' experiences of isolation and stigma (Strauss Swanson & Szymanski, 2020) and increase survivor well‐being (Lakshmin et al., 2018). Successful meaning‐making following trauma and grief can create feelings of closure about a situation, thus enabling the individual to move on (Currier et al., 2006; Sands, 2009).…”