Page 14 - Healing Voices_za sajt

Healing Voices

Understanding torture and trauma

Activity 1.2 (b): The case of Maxine—What is my role? – Demonstration role play

Maxine is a 29-year-old transgender woman from Russia. Maxine’s wife left her and has not let
her see their children since she came out as transgender. Two years ago, Maxine was arrested by
police during a demonstration for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ+)
rights and detained for two months in a cell with male criminals.
While detained, Maxine was repeatedly harassed and raped on several occasions by her cellmates
and guards. Police officers interrogated her almost daily about the names and whereabouts of the
leaders of her group. The officers also asked her many intimate questions about her body and her
sexual life, urinating on her face and forcing her to drink their urine, telling her that she should
die because she was a danger to children. One morning she woke up with feces smeared on her
chest, spelling the word “freak.”
Note: In previous therapy sessions, Maxine and her therapist developed a strong therapeutic
relationship. Maxine also learned breathing and other techniques to manage her distress. The last
session ended with Maxine telling the therapist that she felt ready to tell more about the experiences
that led her to leave Russia the next time they met. As this role play begins, the therapist checks
in with Maxine to see if she feels ready to talk about her traumatic experiences in her homeland.

Instructions for demonstration
1. One trainer will play the role of Maxine, pretending to talk to her therapist with the assis-
tance of an interpreter. The other trainer plays the role of the therapist. The participants
will be instructed to imagine that they are the interpreter.

2. If you are watching this demonstration:
‣ As you observe this demonstration role play about a 29-year-old transgender woman,
try to imagine that you are the interpreter for this session.

‣ Ask yourself: “What is my role?”

Instructions for self-study
1. If you are going through this manual on your own, you can read the transcript of the role
play and imagine that you are the interpreter for this session. Ask yourself: “What is my
role?” and imagine what it would feel like as an interpreter to hear this story.
2. If you have an interpreting partner, or better yet, two partners, you can act out the role
play with the idea that the person who plays the interpreter will not look at the script and
the two partners will neither assist nor interrupt the interpreter but simply play their roles.
(This last point is important.)
3. If you have only one partner, let that partner act out both the role of the therapist and the
client, Maxine.
4. If you and your partner(s) share the same language pairs, then the person who plays the
role of Maxine can (roughly) sight translate the text into the relevant language to facilitate
realistic role play and practice. In that case, keep the dialogue of Maxine as natural and
realistic as possible.

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