Working with Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Creating a Safe Place, Building Strengths

Experiencing sexual abuse often creates a feeling of powerlessness in the child, leaving the child with the perception of having little control over what happens. Physiological effects of childhood sexual abuse have also been found, such as long-term dysregulation of physiological stress response systems. With the varied and unique experiences of each person, adult survivors of child sexual abuse are not a homogeneous group. There is little agreement in the literature on the best therapeutic approach for adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Individual, group and family counselling and cognitive-behavioural interventions have been found to be effective with some clients. Phase-based treatment has also been suggested, in which the initial phase focuses on establishing therapeutic alliance and stabilizing and preparing the client, before moving into more in-depth work in later phase. This chapter describes appropriate assessment and intervention with an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse