This article focuses on initial reflections to the clinical encounter between a victim of extreme police violence during the 2019 Chilean social protest and a psychoanalyst who has previously worked with victims of State violence arising from the Pinochet military dictatorship, (1973–1990). The author discusses similarities and differences between working with victims of both traumas. She describes ILAS (The Latin American Institute of Mental Health and Human Rights), formed in 1988 to provide psychotherapeutic care to victims of political repression during the dictatorship, and to conduct research around mental health and human rights.