Child Sexual Abuse Counselling
Some thoughts by Magdalena Liem. Ring Bridges Counselling if you wish to discuss how we may be able to help you.
Child Sexual Abuse is a form of sexual activity that happens to a child by an adult or another child with/without consent. Child Sexual Abuse is not limited to physical activity, it can be in the form of showing pornography, leading a child to touch sexual parts of others, etc.
How Child Sexual Abuse can happen?
Child Sexual Abuse often happen in an environment where the child is familiar with and trust the perpetrator, such as male relatives, including uncles, cousins, fathers, step fathers, brothers, and family friend. Perpetrators are not limited to males, there are cases that involve female perpetrators, such as babysitters, aunts, mothers and grandmothers. Child Sexual Abuse usually happens when the perpetrator has access to care or responsibility for the child and is trusted by the child’s parent/s. It does not necessarily take place in an exclusive environment, but also sometimes in the car with other people there, at the dinner table during a meal, in the next room, etc.
Who are the victims of Child Sexual Abuse?
Both girls and boys can be victims of Child Sexual Abuse. It is not exclusive to a certain group of children, but can happen to any culture, social-economic level, and even religion. It is important for us to understand that regardless how it happened, Child Sexual Abuse is not the victim’s fault, but is entirely the perpetrator’s fault.
What is the Impact and Effects of Child Sexual Abuse?
The impact of Child Sexual Abuse varies between individuals, as it results from a range of abuse and hence the level of cognition impacted. The wide range of variables include how the abuse happened, the length of time of abuse, the nature of abuse, other types of abuse that may be involved, the relationship they have with their perpetrator, the age they were abused, the culture they are in, their personality, their resilience, and the present environment they are in.
The impact and effects of Child Sexual Abuse are not limited to the physical and emotional, but also the distortion of self image and dissociation/multiple personalities. Some of the emotional effects include feelings of powerless, helplessness, dirtiness, shame, guilt, not being safe, fear, depression, panic, anxiety attacks, mistrust, hate, being numb from feelings and physically, etc. Dissociation happens when adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse literally take a break from the abuse, as if they were not present when the abuse happens, creating different personalities in order to survive. Dissociation/multiple personalities often happen as a result of extreme or sadistic abuse. Some of the long-term effects of Child Sexual Abuse are lack of boundaries, loss of confidence, trust difficulties, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, living in fear, prolong sickness, difficulties in relationships (including difficulties in intimacy), etc.
Adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse often talk about how unworthy, unlovable and dirty they feel. Sometimes they also believe that the abuse was their fault, and therefore they stigmatise, which can lead to self-blaming, self-loathing, self-disgust, self-hatred, self-destructive behaviours, like self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts and behaviours; and the development of other disorders.
Minimisation, denial or rationalization is common coping mechanism for adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse.
How can Child Sexual Abuse victims recover?
A long-term counselling/therapy is needed to help adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse to recover from their past experiences and grow both personally and relationally. Building the trust in the therapeutic relationship is a key factor in the recovery journey of Child Sexual Abuse survivors. As Child Sexual Abuse cases can be complex, a well trained professional Counsellor is therefore needed. A number of therapeutic approaches and experiences in this field is vital for bringing about the healing process for the Child Sexual Abuse survivor and is integrated to the new sense of the adult self, which will change their view and approach to the world. |
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Bridges Counselling is located just 3 km from Parramatta, Carlingford and Northmead - and 6 km from Baulkham Hills and Merrylands. See our Location map.
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