Sexual Abuse Help – Become a Partner in Recovery!

Although sexual abuse is a huge problem that affects one out of four females and one out of six males, less than 10% of survivors contact services for help. Some may not need help, some may not want help. Others may not know how to go about getting help or they don’t feel able to go and see a therapist. Lots of people battle in isolation with the impact of their past.

You don’t have to do it alone!

Blog Carnival: Recovery From Sexual Abuse

  The recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse is a complex topic and many excellent writers have posted contributions that are well worth collecting and presenting as an ‘edition’ to those who are interested in learning more about the recovery from sexual abuse.

Contributions from survivors of sexual abuse, their own journey, their struggles in recovery, and their observations about what works and what doesn’t are just as valuable as the writings of professionals who often approach the recovery from sexual abuse from a slightly different angle.

This carnival is for both kinds of contributions. To spread the word, you can nominate an interesting post you have read somewhere or submit you own work. All contributions are welcome.

To submit an article / blogpost follow this link: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_5111.html

Sexual Abuse Recovery: Balancing Recognition and Disrespect

This is a summary of my PhD research “Balancing Recognition and Disrespect: Recovery as the Process of Identity Formation. A New Zealand Study of How Services Shape Recovery from Sexual Abuse. These findings have been presented at the 15^th Australasian Conference on Traumatic Stress, Melbourne, September 2008. 

The study looked at the experiences sexual abuse survivors had with a wide range of services, such as hospital, mental health services, crisis services, A&E services, GP, police, social worker, counsellors, and teachers. I used critical theory and in particular Recognition Theory developed by Alex Honneth for the analysis of the qualitative study. I interviewed 10 survivors of sexual abuse and 7 providers of services for victims of sexual abuse. 

Sexual Abuse and the Stockholm Syndrome

Emotional bonds and attachments are a precondition for human functioning, prospering, and self-development. Humans and all other mammals have inbuilt neuro-physiological structures in the limbic cortex through which they attach to the parent or caregiver. This is mainly to assure that parent and child care about each other so that the survival of the species is guaranteed. The argument goes that attachments are pretty durable and don’t stop even in situations of abuse or neglect. People think therefore that attachment dynamics are kind of hotwired into our brains.

How To Trust When Trusting Feels Dangerous?

Moving on from surviving sexual abuse to thriving in life can often be an up-hill battle of epic proportions. People, who have been sexually abused and did not get immediately support, care, and love from their parents, inevitably struggle with developing trust. This struggle is not a possibility, it is a fact. In most cases it is a direct result of the abuse. Being betrayed and abused by an adult who should care and protect erodes for most survivors the foundation for trust in other people. This is particularly bad when the perpetrator is a parent or close family member. Who can be trusted if the own family turns out to be not trustworthy?

Do Sexual Abuse Survivors Need Therapy?

I have been asked the other day whether people need to go to a psychotherapist or counsellor to recover from sexual abuse. I think that is a really good question. Does a person need therapy to heal? I don’t think it is necessary to go to a psychotherapist or counsellor. However, they need something because there is little evidence that people heal ‘naturally’ meaning by itself just through time passing.