Working With Adult Incest Survivors

Drawing on their extensive experience, the authors present an approach to the treatment of the adult incest survivor. This combines cognitive- behavioural, psychodynamic, and family treatment perspectives to encompass the full breadth and scope of the healing and recovery process. While acknowledging the need for the survivor to become conscious of the incestuous experience and its impact, the authors view memory retrieval as only the first step in healing; the ultimate goal is letting go of the past to actively reinvent the present. The book presents specific guidelines for the initial, middle and end phases of the therapy, for family-of-origin therapy, and for treatment of the male incest survivor.

It is estimated that at least one in four or five women and one out of ten men was sexually abused as a child by a family member. Most of those people continue to suffer in adulthood because of undeserved guilt, anxiety, and shame. Reclaiming Our Lives, written by a survivor of abuse and a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of adult survivors of abuse, uses interviews with survivors and a healing approach to track the adult problems and what to do about them. Issues of trust, power, control, sexuality, and intimacy are examined in detail. The book concludes with an alphabet of survival tactics and a fourteen-step guide for growth for the survivor.

Understanding and treating adult victims of incest. “Highly recommended as an authoritative text on incest and its treatment” and “essential reading for all therapists,” Healing the Incest Wound was a groundbreaking book that put incest studies and treatment on the map. Now, almost 20 years later, this bestselling text is fully updated, offering the most current studies and findings on incest typologies, dynamics, and treatment strategies. Drawing on cutting-edge research on incest and other forms of child abuse, it includes attention to their neurological, attachment, affective, and dissociative sequelae. Courtois—a veteran practitioner and an expert in complex traumatic stress disorders resulting from chronic child abuse—presents a comprehensive revision to this classic treatment manual for therapists.

A widely used and accepted form of intervention, group therapy has been successfully applied to a variety of populations. This book addresses the here-and-now needs of practitioners working with adult incest survivors. It explores the benefits of this treatment modality in ameliorating symptoms experienced by this client population, and examines both content and process issues in incest therapy groups. Drawing on both current research literature and their own clinical experience, the authors discuss: group treatment research issues; problems experienced by clients; how to prepare both therapist and client for the therapy process; and typical group phases. Other topics explored include problems that can affect the group as a

The author, working from the Family Institute in Cardiff, has been treating adult survivors of child sexual and physical abuse for several years, and she has clearly and frankly described her work in this book. She begins be describing the context for working with her clients; then describes the way she has welded systemic thinking and a feminist perspective into a theoretical model she uses to understand the problem and to guide her own work with the survivors. The descriptions of the therapeutic process are, at the same time, profound and simply conveyed. Her work is further clarified by the inclusion of twenty case examples. She shares her own dilemmas about working with adult survivors, and in this way the book offers the reader support for the emotional impact of this work as well as a theoretical framework and suggestions about therapeutic technique.

Based on clinical work, this book presents a discussion on the use of art in counselling sexually abused children,their families and sex offenders. Current theoretical models such as the "trauma model" have been effective in therapy. The author's clinical experience will provide valuable insight to therapists using art therapy techniques.

LI>As the partner of an incest survivor, do you feel like a neglected victim even though your life has been drastically affected by the aftermath of sexual abuse? Do you fee left out in the cold as you watch them go through recovery? Do you feel isolated or rejected, and think that no one else will understand your problems? Although the impact of incest or sexual abuse can destroy relationships and test long-standing commitments, the information in this book may be the key to holding your relationship together through the journey to recovery. Ghosts in the Bedroom provides comfort and guidance for partners in the process of recovery. Graber draws from personal experience to show how partners can accept responsibility for their own issues, support the recovery of the incest or sexual abuse survivor and work toward solving relationship problems together.

A comprehensive guide to the dynamics of incest and to therapy for survivors.