Kathleen Flinton, a newly hired assistant professor of practice, joined the faculty in July. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Flinton. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Flinton.
Political dissidents have long risked torture and death to challenge the policies and practices of governments across the world. Many dissidents have reportedly been imprisoned, starved, sexually assaulted, and brutally beaten. Some have been forced to flee their countries with nothing but the possessions they could carry.
Kathleen Flinton, a newly hired assistant professor of practice in the Boston College School of Social Work, provides psychotherapy to political dissidents who have survived torture and struggled to remake their lives in the United States.
Studies show that torture can re-wire the circuitry in the brain, leaving victims with long-lasting psychological scars such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.
“I take a holistic approach to help my clients recover and thrive again,” says Flinton, who has worked with survivors of trauma for more than 20 years. “I help support them as they regain professional standing, develop relationships, and work through the spiritual impact of their trauma.”
Flinton comes to BC from the Boston University School of Social Work, where she served as a lecturer and the director of the Post-graduate Certificate in the Treatment of Trauma. She spent six years working her way up the professional ladder at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, where she primarily counseled survivors of torture and provided objective documentation of their psychological injuries.
Flinton says that she evaluated the mental health of dozens of people seeking asylum and wrote affidavits that supported their fear of returning home. Reports show that these evaluations often determine the fate of immigrants who file applications for asylum. One study found that 89 percent of asylum-seekers who received medical evaluations from Physicians for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization that documents human rights violations, were granted asylum, compared to 37 percent of asylum-seekers who did not receive evaluations from the organization.
“When people flee from countries, they’re making life-saving decisions on the spur of the moment and don’t have evidence with them,” says Flinton, who routinely testifies on behalf of asylum-seekers in federal immigration court. “The affidavits create evidence that shows that they present with symptoms consistent with conditions they reported.”
“I take a holistic approach to help my clients recover and thrive again. I help support them as they regain professional standing, develop relationships, and work through the spiritual impact of their trauma.”
Flinton says that a volunteer experience in the late 1990s shaped her career path. After she received a master’s degree in religion from Yale University in 1998, she moved to Boston to work at the International Institute of New England, a nonprofit that helps immigrants and refugees realize their full potential. Flinton signed on to help clients prepare to take the citizenship test, but she ended up counseling immigrants who had experienced domestic violence.
“I loved it and realized that everyone around me was a social worker,” recalls Flinton, who went on to earn her master’s degree in social work from Simmons College in 2003. “That ignited my passion for immigrant and refugee mental health and showed me the role social work has within this specialized area of practice.”
Flinton says that she looks forward to collaborating with students and faculty across the Boston College School of Social Work, including those who focus on improving the lives of immigrants and refugees. One of the reasons why she chose BC, she says, is because the school’s five-year plan to reimagine social work training and education includes an initiative to integrate trauma-informed theory, principles, and practice into curriculum, field education, and research.
“Being able to become a trauma-informed school as part of the strategic plan is really exciting to me,” says Flinton. “That’s what I love to teach, and to find a school committed to that vision was a wonderful opportunity for me.”
Flinton plans to teach two courses this fall—”Adult Psychological Trauma: Assessment and Treatment” and “The Impact on Traumatic Victimization on Child and Adolescent Development.” She says her teaching philosophy centers on the belief that students must understand both how and why they employ particular strategies to help clients process trauma.
“I want to share with them my fascination with how the brain works and how brilliantly our bodies are designed to continue to survive after experiencing trauma,” says Flinton. “I want to help them look at individuals to see how they’re coping and provide the scaffolding to support the recovery process.”