This paper builds on the experience of the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture in using the testimony method and allied approaches in working with survivors of torture seeking asylum in Australia. It describes recent changes in the policy and practice of the Australian government in dealing with on-shore refugee claims and how this affects the insecurity and deprivation which characterize the asylum-seeker's world. The origins and purpose of the testimony method are outlined and the testimony process, as used at the Foundation, is described. The implications of this process are considered, with respect to informed consent, the asylum-seeker's control of the process, the emotional impact on survivor and listener, the status of the testimony, credibility, education of the listener/reader, and the role of the agency in the emerging context of adversarial advocacy in and around refugee claims. The Foundation, a small non-government organization in Australia, works through a counsellor-advocate casework model, and the paper emphasizes the interaction between therapy and the status determination process. Vignettes from case examples are interspersed in the text.