Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse
Stepping into the Time vault of childhood sexual abuse
Recovering from childhood sexual abuse can feel like time spent in limbo. How has it been 13 years and it still feels like it happened yesterday? In the book entitled “The Courage to Heal” by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, Davis uncovers the key secrets survivors need to heal for threatening and life-altering trauma. Healing from childhood sexual abuse and molestation can be one of those most horrific experiences of anyone’s life.
The psychic wounds that survivors experience during the event represent a lifetime of rage, inner-turmoil and confusion. The survivor may find themselves constantly processing the event in chasmic and unearthing ways. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors are at high risk for sexual re-victimization, lack of intimacy in romantic relationships, and can have long-term negative health detriments. Typically at first, the experience goes against all that the child has come to expect from their grown up family members, neighbors, baby sisters and adults. The child – unwittingly – learns to rely on adults for their support, nurturing and care. The scars from overcoming CSA hold long-standing and painful roads for the childhood abuse survivor.
Yalom Present Moment Focus
A primary goal of present-focused therapy is to help the survivor reconstruct their concept of themselves by working through any self-distortions expressed in relationships or in their day-to-day life.
The fundamental assumption underlying present-focused group therapy for sexual abuse is that the traumatic experiences are bound to influence the survivor throughout their life, both consciously and unconsciously. One of the most important goals of present-focused therapy is that the survivor develops an awareness of their current maladaptive behaviors (alcohol use, promiscuity, rage and internalized aggression) or interaction styles that may have originated with the abuse. By learning how to cope and interact in more adaptive ways in the present-moment, the individual living with CSA will feel more in control of their day-to-day life and less controlled by the past.
Reconstructing Traumatic Memories
A primary goal for trauma-focused therapy is to help the survivor reconstruct and work through their abuse memories and examine the meanings they developed due to the abuse. The survivor is encouraged to tell their story of the abuse. It is through telling and retelling the story, in the context of supportive and nonjudgmental environment, that the survivor may recognize ways in which they came to distort the experience of themselves in order to survive.
Without a doubt, the traumatic experiences are bound to influence the survivor throughout their life including inability to feel intimacy, promiscuity, lack of empathy and possibly symptoms of PTSD. By learning how to access and control their own memories, the individual living with CSA will feel less controlled by their own memories.
Stress Reduction
The outcome of the goals of both trauma therapies for (CSA) involve
1. Enhancing self-esteem
2. Reconnection
3. Improving Interpersonal Relationships
4. Improving coping strategies
5. Reducing symptoms
Undergoing these therapies, can be extremely stressful for the survivor. Therefore, it is important to implement stress reduction as a core feature of the trauma therapy. Thus, enabling the client to have an increased capacity to hold, retain and reprocess the traumatic incidents in a way that is regulative and not destructive to their nervous system.
Taking the steps to reclaim your life after childhood sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse in childhood, particularly if it is repetitive, brings a serious threat to the child’s development. Because it occurs during the time and individual is the process of establishing a self, and usually involves trusting adults or men, the child runs the risk of incorporating the bad feelings it raises for them into their sense of self. In order to recover safety, the child will often attribute the experience to themselves, concluding that they ‘this is what happens to them,’ or ‘that they wanted it.’ Taking steps back to reclaim the survivors life involves deconstructing the traumatic events and making new meaning about the lived experiences.
Founder AND owner
Paige Swanson, LPC-A, NCC, MA
I completed my Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health at Northwestern University. My clinical experience and training include working at highly regarded organizations such as The University of Denver, Southern Methodist University, The Eating Recovery Center, Private Rehabs, and a one-year post-graduate fellowship.
My background has provided me with a comprehensive skillset in conceptualizing trauma, mood disorders, and personality disorders as well as individuals who have been impacted by familial issues
Types of Therapy in Dallas
EMDR Therapy | INtegrative Therapy
Integrated trauma therapy utilizes many different forms of therapeutic treatment to help you recover from trauma.
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is centered around embracing your core functions and helping you reach your highest potential.
Book a consultation today
Book a consultation with one of our therapists and discover relief for you therapy today.
