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Healing Voices

Possible emotional reactions to talking about trauma

(e.g., Maxine in the Activity 1.1 (b) role play in this chapter)

• Reliving the experience in the form of flashbacks that can involve sounds, feelings, emotions,
and behaviors.
• Having intense emotional experiences: agitation, anxiety, sobbing, crying, shouting.
• Difficulty staying on topic.
• Dissociation: Change in consciousness, which disturbs the normally connected functions of
identity, memory, thoughts, feelings and experiences. (For example, daydreaming during a
boring lecture!)
• Feeling pain in the body.
• Difficulty concentrating and forgetfulness.

Optional Activity: Exploring the impact of torture and war trauma

Instructions for classroom
1. Read Table 1: Some Common Physical Findings in Torture Survivors
2. Imagine that you are interpreting in a dental office for a refugee who was beaten in pris-
on until his jaw was smashed and he lost several teeth.
3. With your partner, discuss the potential impact on the survivor when the dentist makes it
impossible for him to speak by drilling on the patient’s tooth to replace a filling.
4. Decide how an interpreter might handle this situation.
Instructions for self-study
1. Try to imagine that you are the interpreter in the scenario above.
2. In your journal, try to describe how you imagine the survivor might feel when the dentist
makes it impossible for him to speak by drilling on the patient’s tooth to replace a filling.
3. Think about how this might impact your work as the interpreter. List things you might do
as the interpreter to handle the situation.
4. Consider discussing your answers with other interpreters studying this manual.

Section 1.3: Personal strengths of survivors

Objective 1.3

After completing this objective, you will be able to:
Explore sources of personal strength in the lives of survivors.

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