Women as political participants: Psychosocial postconflict recovery in Peru.

This article presents preliminary findings on the effectiveness of postconflict recovery strategies, one of which is political activism. I describe Peru's experience to illustrate how mental health professionals adopt a more holistic view of psychosocial healing within the reparations framework established by Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I then illustrate how this model meets the particular needs of women who survived the conflict and are now reclaiming their mental well-being through political activism. The short-term evaluation of this approach reveals that it benefits this population both through raising their self-esteem and by involving them in policy decisions that directly affect their lives.