Psychological health in the penitentiary sector is a much-discussed topic in cultural debate, but sometimes little invested in terms of resources , actions and management at the political level .
The article starts from the desire to reflect on the contribution of psychology in prison and in particular on the possibilities of applying Single Session Therapy in detention contexts starting from a subjective professional experience, in which I had the opportunity to follow through psychological interviews some prisoners at the end of their sentence, close to social reintegration.
Before seeing how SST can be a tool at the service of professionals and inmates within prison, let’s briefly look at the setting and the prison environment to introduce the reader to a reality that is often difficult to imagine.
The prison environment
At the edge of the city, out of sight of most, the prison can be seen as a reality in a certain sense alienating and unknown to citizens and sometimes even to professionals. A place that remains shrouded in a dark aura of mystery and that often leads to a sense of threat and fear that fuels closure and separateness.
When you arrive in prison, leaving your bag and cell phone in the locker at the porter’s lodge represents an act of dispossession, which can bring operators and inmates closer together.
The struggle for space, known in the healthcare sector for the lack of rooms available to operators, is often intense here. And we often find ourselves having interviews without a defined setting.
Sometimes a setting does not exist at all. It is illusory (and above all practically useless) to think that disturbing elements can be removed to obtain an adequate setting. Making a virtue of necessity, such elements can represent an added value when they are treated in the hic et nunc of the therapeutic relationship, in the complete realization of the principle of utilization dear to Brief Therapies in general.
SST in prison
The peculiarity of the psychologist in prison is to listen to the external and internal reality and help the inmates to do so, intercept situations of discomfort also and above all linked to the context of deprivation, analyze them to arrive at understanding how the problems function and propose interventions at multiple levels, concrete, congruent and easily achievable.
This last point is really important, especially if you consider that that interview with that prisoner could be the first and last. Often, in fact, there might not be the possibility of meeting that person again because he is transferred, because he is in isolation, because he is unable to participate, because he is carrying out other activities.
So, in this sense, SST is a keystone that allows you to do something useful and concrete in a short time, since everything is exhausted in that single meeting.
When phenomena are highly complex, through TSS it is possible to allow the person to give a priority to what emerges in the interview, proceeding in small steps it is useful to work “laterally” to build reinforcements around resources. Specifically, contrast the phagocytic aspect of the context by generating possibilities, using power in constructive and not destructive terms as often happens in prisoner-law enforcement relationships.
How do you talk about the future in prison?
In such a narrow environment, where it seems almost an oxymoron to talk about future prospects when there are even long sentences to serve, the SST appears to be an indispensable tool for obtaining immediate and lasting benefits on the psychological well-being of prisoners .
In operations, where it could be easy to lose sight of the integrity of the person in prison, it is of fundamental importance to be able to build a meeting capable of giving meaning and perspective, valorising the different dimensions that characterise the person himself and therefore also his prison experience, going beyond labels and trying as much as possible to trace the “gold in the dirt” in terms of resources, capacities and possibilities for improvement .
What else is needed?
It is necessary to connect the present , which in prison risks being a suspended time (and sometimes perceived as “lost”), with the past and the future and to relocate the experience of detention in one’s own history. To look at the outside in a less destructive and more constructive way.
The goal on the one hand is to facilitate adaptation, as much as possible, to the temporary situation of detention and, at the same time, to accompany people through the discomfort resulting from a state of confinement. The ultimate goal is clearly to give the person the opportunity to find and experiment with alternatives, see their own resources and imagine how to realize a new life project once they are out of there, with the prison doors closed behind them .
Speaking of doors, the door is also a therapeutic element that can be used in this context . Since the door, for safety reasons, must remain open, there is no complete delimitation of the space. Inmate and therapist end up favoring the intimacy of the meeting over time precisely by virtue of their mutual efforts to exclude stimuli extraneous to the conversation.
The duration of the interview is not rigid either, but can vary for reasons beyond the control of the professional and often one must organize interviews lasting 15-20 minutes.
Conclusions
Even in a context of limitation and deprivation of freedom such as prison, SST gives the professional the opportunity to put the person at the centre of the therapeutic process , which is the best way to activate their resources and restore their well-being in the shortest time possible.
Valeria Campinoti
Psicologa
Team dell’Italian Center
for Single Session Therapy
Bibliography
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Mandolillo P., Iossa Fasano A., Cardamone G. (2020). Nonspecific therapeutic factors: a psychodynamic reflection on the treatment paths offered by Public Mental Health Services, in Nuova rassegna di studi psichiatric i, online journal, volume 20.
Paleani R., Benelli C. (2020). Between inside and outside prison. Building an internal map to reorient oneself in restricted situations, in Animazione Sociale n. 337.Turin: Gruppo Abele.