Adult survivors of child sexual abuse, By Christine A. Courtois, Milwaukee: Families International, Inc., 1993. $16.95
✍ Scribed by Julia B. Frank
- Book ID
- 102447826
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1994
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 111 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-9867
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Growing recognition of the lasting impact of sexual abuse in childhood has created a demand for new clinical services. Where once problems related to the resolution of incest were confined to psychotherapists' offices, today people who identify themselves as survivors may appear in self-help programs, the offices of school counsellors, employee assistance programs, church groups, doctors' offices, and every imaginable therapeutic setting. The need for education, both of survivors and of those from whom they may seek counsel, is acute. In Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Christine Courtois addresses this need by offering a detailed protocol for conducting an eight to ten week, structured, small group "workshop" that orients patients and help-givers to current understandings of sexual abuse and its lasting effects.
The book's eight chapters each cover one workshop session, including both "mini-lectures" and instructions for facilitating the active participation of those who attend. The author provides copies of all her handouts and supporting materials. She has broken the topic down into an overview, a discussion of the family context of abuse, the concept of trauma and typical psychological responses, initial and delayed effects of trauma, and distortions in self-perception that may follow from trauma. The final two chapters cover the impact of sexual trauma on adults' relations with others and the role of naturally occurring and professional resources for recovery. While a degree of repetition is inevitable, and, indeed, helpful in the workshop format, overall, Dr. Courtois' program covers the field broadly and in considerable depth.
While aiming primarily at professionals who might wish to run trauma workshops, the author also clearly expects participant survivors to find and read the text. The book's dual audience accounts for both its strengths and its deficiencies. Courtois succeeds admirably in taking complex ideas from multiple sources and presenting them coherently, in common language. The