During the discussion, experts explained that during the meetings the survivor can express their own conscious needs and the professional can better understand what could be their deeper issues and needs. For example, offering an individual psychotherapy session to a person who is not ready to engage with their own deep emotions could be dangerous. So, survivors let experts comprehend which kind of needs they can handle first, based on what they feel is tolerable. It is important to let the survivors manage what and when they choose to disclose information about their own trauma and story. During the physical exam, the doctor is respectful of the physical boundaries of a body that has been violated through torture (e.g. people who have lived through rape, beatings, etc., have suffered an invasion of their physical boundaries). One of the aims of the group meeting with the interdisciplinary team is to promote the survivors’ empowerment and their ability to take back control of their own life and decisions. The idea is to transform them from a passive victim to an active survivor, in their eyes and to others. This can better allow them to understand the results of medical tests and to make informed decisions about the proposed treatment. Giving back control to torture survivors is a key part of the healing process because their control was taken away by the perpetrators of torture. The role of the cultural mediators is particularly important in the rehabilitation of migrant or refugee victims of torture. The cultural mediators serve as a bridge between the victim and the experts. They are also crucial in establishing the first contact with the survivors and preparing them to meet with the expert team and start the rehabilitation process. This format should be fixed, each survivor meets always the same experts, as a way to give the person stability and build trust with the group of experts. In the rehabilitation process, key words are “time” and “trust”: time is crucial to build trust and only when the victim trusts the experts, stories of torture emerge. A holistic approach to rehabilitation tries to reconnect the survivor to their previous life and help them find their past identity. It was explained that often perpetrators of torture brainwash their victims. Torture can also cause the victim to lose their sense of identity. During the rehabilitation process, survivors need to find a way back to the person they were before their trauma, also in order to free themselves from their perpetrators. During the discussion it became clear that the rehabilitation of torture survivors cannot stand outside of structured social assistance. It would be a mistake not to consider the present social conditions of the victim and only cure them from a medical point of view. Furthermore, social assistance can have a high therapeutic and rehabilitative value. It complements the efforts of the medical and psychological professionals as it serves to reconstruct their life path, to orient themselves in the host society, to plan for their future and thereby help them restore those functions that were affected by torture and sufferings that accompany their flight. C. Working Group 3: Rehabilitation services and funding models Background – ODIHR/CTI Practical Tool: Rehabilitation service models vary from country to country, depending on the political and social context, the particular needs of torture victims, the existing public health infrastructure and funding. There is no “one size fits all” response to the question of how to provide rehabilitation services. Good practice suggests that states adopt a long-term, multi-disciplinary approach to providing rehabilitation services and consider the following possibilities: (i) State-led services: direct provision of specialized rehabilitation services through national health and social systems and budgets; 14