then on rebuilding their lives and empowering them to heal. A step in this rebuilding may be legal pursuit of the perpetrators. Justice in Kenya can take years so the psychosocial support in the earlier three phases is incredibly important to prepare them for what may lie ahead. Often, continual follow-up support is needed during the legal process and at the conclusion, depending on the outcome of the case. A recent example of our psychosocial support concerns a group of nine exservicemen of the Kenyan Air Force, who were detained, imprisoned and tortured after a failed coup attempt in Kenya in 1982. Overcoming the overbearing feelings of shame and stigma they had earlier experienced from society, the group eventually felt empowered and decided to share their stories with the world. In the beginning of counselling, the group members were going through legal proceedings in the form of a civil case in the industrial court, suing the government over wrongful dismissal and ill-treatment. Most of the group members had never spoken about the torture they experienced after the 1982 coup attempt and were very hesitant to engage in therapy. In order to build safety, IMLU counsellors provided the group with psychosocial support and education about the impact of torture and normalised their feelings and experiences. The group was then able to start building trust with each other and the counsellor and were then ready to process the trauma. The final component of the group therapy process was to assist the men with letting go of any part of their story or feelings that they no longer wished to hold onto. The men chose to write letters to their perpetrators and then burned the letters in a letting go ceremony. The men then felt empowered to move on and rebuild their lives. They have now formed a society from which they hope to help others who were tortured after the 1982 coup attempt and assist them in rebuilding their lives. IMLU will be providing the men with peer counselling training in order to further empower the group to reach out to other torture survivors. 37