Back Albanian women’s prison to pilot trauma-informed therapy

Tirana, Albania 25-26 June 2025
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Albanian women’s prison to pilot trauma-informed therapy

The European Union and Council of Europe continues to assist Albanian prison service to introduce Trauma-Informed Therapy (TiT) in Pojska, Albania’s only prison for women offenders.

Following earlier advanced training on TiT for Pojska prison psycho-social staff and representatives of the Directorate General of Prisons, another cascade training was held on 25-26 June 2026 in Tirana, supported by the EU and Council of Europe. It aimed to enhance the skills and confidence of psychologists in delivering the therapy in a safe environment, with a peer review and expert’s feedback.

The first day of the training focused on practical therapy scenarios based on the Trauma Therapy Manual for Prison Staff, including peer feedback on strengths and areas for improvement. The second day covered techniques for managing difficult prisoners, individual vs group therapy, and tailored planning on the piloting of the programme in Pojska prison, during the period July- Sep 2025.

This activity was conducted by the action on “Enhancing the protection of Human Rights of prisoners in Albania”. in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme ”Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye – Phase III”.

Work in this thematic area focuses on prisons and police (including human rights in policing, healthcare in prisons and safeguards against torture and ill-treatment), human rights standards in the judiciary (focusing on enhancing the application of case-law of the European Court of Human Rights), migration issues, the efficiency of justice systems (with a focus on analysing judicial statistics to optimise court administrations) and/or legal co-operation (which concentrates on increasing the individual independence of judges and prosecutors and the accountability of the judicial system).

Actions under theme I: Strengthening justice

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.