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Many asylum seekers present cumulative traumas, associating the shocks that determined their departure with those of the voyage and the arrival. Silence is one of the significant defences for someone who has been plunged into the dynamics of survival. To defend him or herself psychically, the subject is heavily dependent on hypervigilance and suppression, given that the traumatic contents exert constant pressure against this rampart. The article insists on the reception arrangements that need to be put in place and on the personal commitment required, respecting the mutism of the patients. The therapist uses his/her “enlightened” verbalisations and psychic and mnenomic capacities for containing the patient on the one hand and, on the other, for stimulating the possibility of mentalization, first of all via the intellect. What is left unsaid by patients about their psychic suffering is discussed; such reservations need to be brought into the open to help them acquire greater freedom to exist and think.