In a room overlooking a rainy garden in north London, a grown man is crying. He is from Iran, and fled to the UK after being tortured by authorities there. This morning he received a letter from the Home Office asking him to come for another interview. He is terrified that he might be sent back.

The man, who has asked me to call him Daniel*, is part of a group of torture survivors from around the world who meet every week at the charity Freedom from Torture to bake bread and support each other. Alex*, another member of the group, gives Daniel a hug. “I had a bad experience of interviews,” says Daniel, his face blank with fear. “My mind is very busy now.”

The bread group was set up by two therapists, Saba Stefanos and Shamsi Mahdavi, employed by the charity and has been running for 10 years. “We thought bread is a common thing for everyone,” says Stefanos of the decision to base the group around baking. “It’s a staple food in every society. The bread brings together the past and the present. They can talk about who made the bread back home, how they ate it together. It enables people who are not able to talk, to talk. And they discover a creativity they never thought they had.”

Just over 29,000 people claimed asylum in the UK between September 2014 and September 2015 – the highest number since 2005, including increased numbers from Eritrea, Syria, Sudan and Iraq. Independent clinical research estimates that up to one third of those had been tortured.

“When you leave, you leave everything. It’s not your choice. And then when you come here your hope is gone. You feel afraid. A lot of people believe what they read in the newspapers. They should not.”

The charity received 1,313 referrals last year, more than a fifth of them children and young people. Survivors came from 78 countries in total, with the highest numbers from Sri Lanka, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“People have had traumatic experiences,” says Stefanos. “They don’t necessarily want to talk about it or maybe they can’t. Perhaps being in a situation with other people who have been through similar things is more therapeutic than therapy.”

Members of the bread group are at different stages of the asylum process, with some having been given either 30 months’ discretionary leave to remain or five years’ asylum or humanitarian protection, while others are still in limbo, not knowing whether they will be allowed to stay. Those who have had their claims accepted – sometimes after years of waiting – are now finally beginning to look for work. Those who are still awaiting a decision, are appealing against a decision or are putting forward a fresh claim are not allowed to work. Instead, they receive support in the form of temporary accommodation, wherever it is offered, and an Azure payment card with £35.39 to spend per week in specified shops. The card cannot be used on public transport.

Back home, the members of the bread group worked in healthcare, fashion, catering or were studying full-time; here some of them have had periods living on the streets, in cars or in mice-infested rooms. “I never thought I would live in a country where I wasn’t born,” Alex tells me. “When you leave, you leave everything. It’s not your choice. You leave to save your life. And then when you come here your hope is gone. You feel afraid. A lot of people believe what they read in the newspapers. They should not.”

Kolbassia Haoussou, a former Freedom from Torture client who set up Survivors Speak OUT within the charity to give clients more of a voice, says negative news coverage of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers makes life even more difficult. “There is a very strong political will against asylum in the UK,” he says. “What the population get is politicians labelling people seeking safety as unwelcome people, people who create problems, people we need to push away, and the population take it as fact. It creates hostility and sets people against each other.”

“It enables people who are not able to talk, to talk. And they discover a creativity they never thought they had.”

Carla Ferstman, director of Redress, which campaigns against torture worldwide, says there is a direct correlation between torture and the current numbers of asylum seekers trying to enter Europe. “Many of those seeking asylum have been tortured in their home countries and fear torture if they are involuntarily returned,” she says. “Additionally some asylum seekers have been tortured or ill-treated en route, particularly in the staging countries for people smugglers…Furthermore, the practice of detaining asylum seekers and refugees on their arrival in Europe has led to significant examples of torture and ill-treatment, including allegations of rape and sexual exploitation in detention.”

Ferstman says not enough effort is being made to identify torture survivors and ensure they receive the necessary care. Meanwhile, historic allegations of British involvement in post-9/11 rendition, including Guantanamo Bay, and of torture and ill treatment of detainees by British service personnel in Iraq, are not being properly investigated, she says. “The government has consistently said that it abhors torture in all its forms and has taken a leading role in international efforts to prevent torture,” she says. “But unfortunately, it has been less swift to address torture in which its officials have been allegedly involved.”

Back in the garden room, Daniel has put an apron over his black puffer jacket and jeans and has selected ingredients from a trolley laden with flours, herbs and oils to make a flatbread with black seeds. Lee* adds teaspoons of sugar, chocolate and instant coffee to his dough. “Sometimes it’s very difficult to chat with someone else because you don’t really trust them and because your experience is very complicated for someone to understand,” he says. “Here we share our experiences and we support each other.”

Alex is already on his third batch. “Coconut bread is my speciality but today I do something new,” he tells me. He says being in the bread group has given him back his confidence to speak and trust other people again. “The special thing here is there is no judgement,” he says. “Everyone appreciates what we do.”

At the end of the session, Stefanos puts out a plate with the breads fresh from the oven and we sit and eat. Alex is thoughtful. “When I come here, I can relax,” he says. “I can share the pain I feel inside. I miss the group in between. Most of the time I feel alone, but here it is like going home.”

*Some names have been changed.

In December 2015, Freedom from Torture launched An A-Z of Poverty, a series of films by torture survivors about living in the UK. The films can be viewed here.

The post Torture survivors find bravery in bread appeared first on Positive News.

It was a chance, silent encounter on a beach in wild Warrnambool that helped carve the path for Adam Royal’s future.

Early one morning, while gazing at the sea off Australia’s Great Ocean Road, he noticed another lone surfer, a man he later learned was a recovering alcoholic.

To Royal, their daily, fortuitous meetings at dawn, spent silently ‘reconnecting with the ocean’, highlighted the enormous healing powers of the sea.

He has since trained in psychology and worked as a therapist, founded wellbeing company Surfer Billie and created the unique sea-centred ocean therapy programme. The programme helps people with mental health issues, disabilities and both first-time and experienced surfers to escape the stresses of daily life: to ‘let go’; heal; and find a similar, deep relationship with the ocean.

“I have subconsciously been using ocean therapy since I was a child on family holidays spent on the Victoria and Queensland coastlines,” recalls Royal, fondly.

“I vividly remember getting up at dawn every morning and walking down to the beach just to stare out into the ocean. The energy I would receive back from the sea always gave me a peaceful feeling – there was a deep spiritual connection.

“The ocean can not only heal cuts with salt, but it has the ability to trigger a psychological state of calm and contentment. It can literally wash away the pain.”

“It was on one of these early mornings that I noticed another person on the beach,” explains Royal. “He was a recovering alcoholic who lived in a nearby caravan. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was ocean therapy at play. Every morning we would stand and stare at the waves without saying a word to one another. It was powerful stuff and it never left my memory.

“I knew that meshing my psychological education with my love for the ocean was the perfect move for me and so Surfer Billie was born.”

The idea of being immersed in nature to improve health and wellbeing is not a new one. In 1901, naturalist John Muir wrote how: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find that going to the mountains is going home; the wildness is a necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

Even before then, the Greeks had evolved a healing therapy called the ‘water cure’. This was made up of a number of therapies, including hydrotherapy, which gave way to Father Sebastian Kneipp’s system of natural therapeutics, which formed the basis of what is now known as naturopathy.

Royal believes that immersion in nature plays an important role in therapy, but adds that, from a holistic perspective, literally being submerged in the ocean plays a particularly powerful role and claims he is one of the first to incorporate direct contact with the sea into such a programme.

“The basic premise of ocean therapy is nature immersion therapy but there is a lot of depth to the research conducted on humans’ internal desire to move towards water, which appears to be much more than merely being in nature,” says Royal.

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So how does Royal’s ocean therapy programme work and what sets it apart from other forms of nature immersion therapy?

“Ocean Therapy is a combination of programmes that are all ocean-centric and chosen to create balance through fostering the mind-body connection,” explains Royal.

“Surfing is at its core: learning to surf; improving surfing skills through the observation of wave formation; and listening and feeling the ocean’s energy. Forming a connection with the sea through the power of visualisation through beach meditation and yoga forms another part of the ocean therapy programme.”

And it seems to be the perfect way to relax the mind and reduce stress, according to Royal and of his clients.

“With regards to working with individuals with mental health issues or physical disabilities, what is most important is that the ocean is a great leveller. It strips away the notion of ability or disability, because for all of us we are at the mercy of the ocean, none of us can control it.

“This is empowering for individuals who have been told that they are different or weaker, or whatever negative connotations that have been derived from their diagnosis, the ocean provides a level playing field for everyone to connect. From a purely therapeutic perspective, providing ocean therapy programmes to individuals with mental health issues or physical disabilities is an amazingly powerful therapy tool to approach treatment from a non-linear perspective. It enables an element of space, creativity and fun, which is often lacking in traditional therapy options.”

Another differentiating factor is Royal’s belief in humanity’s intrinsic connection to the ocean. Citing the work of Dr Wallace J Nichols and his book The Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do, Royal says: “He has published incredibly interesting work on the evolutionary connection to water, specifically to the ocean, with his most recent work further examining what he calls ‘the blue mind’, asking why we are drawn to holiday by the ocean, what the neuroscience is behind this desire and how it forms a part of wellbeing.

“It is complete sensory immersion leaving us with no choice but to remain in the present.”

“It is an incredibly exciting time as further studies reveal what many of us have already intuitively known – that the ocean can not only heal cuts with salt, but it has the ability to trigger a psychological state of calm and contentment. It can literally wash away the pain.”

Covering 71 percent of Earth’s surface, the oceans provide much of the food we eat, supply 50 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere, support more than 90 percent of the trade between countries by ship and house half of the world’s communication cables underwater. Yet just 10 percent has been explored by humanity and from Royal’s perspective, the exploration of connecting to and ‘knowing’ the ocean at a deeper level is only now truly beginning.

“The ocean provides perspective in a way that nothing else in nature therapy can. It is constantly changing and shifting right before your eyes, which is engaging from both a physical and psychological perspective. It forces us to learn to quickly adapt and take in new information as the environment changes before us.

“The ocean bombards us with multi-sensory stimulation, we feel the grains of sand, we taste and smell the salt, the wind rushes over our face and body, we hear the waves break and move and feel the water on our skin. It is complete sensory immersion leaving us with no choice but to remain in the present.

“It is this awakening of present state consciousness that is the element my clients take with them long after our ocean therapy programmes conclude, ingraining positive behaviour modification which enables self-regulation.”

As Royal expands his ocean therapy programme to Noosa, Queensland this year, he remembers that chance silent meeting on the beach at Warrnambool and reflects on a day spent sharing the water with about 30 surfers: “I was just looking at everyone and every single surfer appeared just so at peace with themselves. I didn’t know their backgrounds, psychological state, what personal issues that they had, but in that very moment everyone had this peacefulness about them, not a word spoken, just an amazing connection with the ocean.”

Surfer Billie was created by Adam Royal and his partner as a result of their desire to help others heal. They are currently establishing a base on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and are running a retreat in Sri Lanka in November with ocean therapy forming an integral part of the programme. They have two pop-up retreats in Europe planned for 2016 and are currently compiling a database of similar, personally recommended ocean therapy programmes in Europe, which will appear on their website soon.

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