Anna in prison (KULEUVEN-04-EN)

Anna is a 40-year-old single woman. She was convicted for committing arson in the house of her ex-boyfriend. Anna is a first-time prisoner. In the past, Anna had experienced depressive episodes, which she had been hiding from the outside world. Ten years ago, Anna attempted to commit suicide after a relationship break-up. After a short stay in an emergency hospital Anna returned back home and just continued living as if nothing had happened, as she had “erased” this dark period. Incarceration pushed her to remember this earlier dark period in her life. The experience of being incarcerated and having committed a crime were too strong for Anna to deny. Relying on her formal ways of coping, she got stuck in judgmental ruminations and did not know how to share her pain with other people. As a coping mechanisms, she isolated herself from the other inmates, refusing to leave her room or to engage in any activity. The prison officers realised that something was going wrong when Anna started to shift abruptly form extreme apathy to aggressive attitudes.

Alarmed, a trauma-informed practice-trained staff, through the observation of Anna’s non-verbal behaviour, recognised the symptoms of increasing self-destructive behaviours and personality disorder.

This staff members decided to talk to Anna in an emphatic listening approach acknowledging her experience in being incarcerated. Thanks to the trust build attitude, the staff member managed to help Anna to slowly share her emotions.

Anna shared her hope to find a way out of this emotional nightmare and her need to figure out what caused her to commit the crime in the first place, in order to prevent impulsive actions in the future.

The staff member explained to Anna that she could find support for this and to contact the counselling service of the prison. Anna decided to start an individual psychotherapy that continued also after she was released from prison.

Laura Hein, Reasearch and Teaching Assistant KU Leuven