Stories of Sanctuary: Waltham Forest Refugee Psychology Service

In our Stories of Sanctuary, we share stories from those seeking asylum in our Borough of Sanctuary  and the community supporting them.  

The Waltham Forest Refugee Psychological Therapies Service (WFRPTS) is specialist NHS service that offers psychological therapy and practical support for refugees, people seeking asylum and other forced migrants with complex emotional needs. 

The team is made up of clinical psychologists, and patients can self-refer, or are usually referred by health services. The team has specialist expertise in working cross-culturally with survivors of prolonged and multiple trauma, including torture, human trafficking, childhood abuse, and domestic violence.  

A previous service user spoke warmly of the care they received. They said: 

I have felt truly welcomed and supported. The service gave me guidance and reassurance at a time when I needed it most. It has helped me feel safe and part of the community.  

Most clients have  experienced a number of traumatic events in their country of origin or on their journeys to the UK, and their main mental health difficulties are directly related to their reasons for exile.  

The service are proud to provide  high quality, evidence-based therapies to clients who are often  refused care whilst awaiting for their asylum claim to be processed or deemed as ‘too unstable’ to be able to benefit from psychological therapy.

Dr Livia Ottisova, Principal Clinical Psychologist and service lead says, 

I am incredibly proud of the compassionate and very effective care that our team offers. In spite of living in situations of great uncertainty, many of our patients are able to greatly benefit from psychological treatments and report not only a reduction in their severe PTSD symptoms, but also improvements in overall functioning. This frees them up to better be able to contend with the many challenges and injustices of living as a refugee in the UK.

The service is rooted in a commitment to human rights and social justice, upholding values of empowerment, respect for diversity, community focus and participation and putting service users at the heart of all it does.  

The recent collaboration between the service and the council has significantly increased capacity to support families on resettlement schemes and conduct more community and outreach work in the borough, such as running an Afghan men’s group and open access wellbeing workshops. 

The team is bound together by a strong sense of friendship, solidarity and shared values, they say:

I don’t think any of us would be able to do this work were it not for the warmth, support and friendship between us. A deep sense of care not only for our clients but also for each other.