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Childhood sexual abuse and its effects on adulthood
Childhood sexual abuse and its effects on adulthood
Psychological effects of child sexual abuse
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In the mental health field, one of the hastiest concern professionals in the field are most anxious about is child sexual abuse and incest (Cashwell & Young, 2011). Why this is an extreme matter is due to the long term psychological affects child sexual abuse can impact on a child’s future. The long term affects that can occur are traumatization, fear/shame, depression, anxiety, paranoia, antisocial behaviors, eating disorders, and interpersonal issues (Cashwell & Young, 2011). Considering the alarming problems that can consume the youth, the qualities counselors must acquire is specialized knowledge and skills that form a safe and supportive counseling session for the child. The professional must establish a trusting relationship, be mourning, …show more content…
The family genogram is a good tool in studying the client’s family history of sexual abuse and the sexual patterns. A tool that experience counselors must be comfortable to administer is gaining self-controlling. This brings the client to the harmful sexual situation but makes the client apprehensive that they are in control of their body. More importantly, the treatment introduces the client to healthy/positive outlets for their anger, anxiety, and stress. The last structure professionals can apply is the wilderness therapy. This therapy utilities outdoor activities such as survival camps, obstacle courses, and rocking climbing so the client can devise trust, self-confidence, and self-esteem (Cashwell & Young, 2011). Lastly, if assisting an adult who is experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Murphy, Elklit, Murphy, Hyland, and Shevlin (2017) stated how a beneficial therapy is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). If the counselor desires to support the client through a “self-control” exercise, CPT can help with reconstructing the client’s feelings and fragmented memory (Murphy et al.,
CBT helps the person learn the symptoms of PTSD and help them understand how it affects the person’s life (Hawk, 2012). A person’s emotions, thinking and actions are not separated, they overlap with each other. This approach is used to change the client’s way of thinking and behaving into a more positive and healthier way of thinking and behaving (Corey, 2013).
Easton, S. D., Coohey, C., O'leary, P., Zhang, Y., & Hua, L. (2010). The Effect of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Psychosexual Functioning During Adulthook. J Fam Viol , 41-50.
Hunt-Amos, S., Bischoff, R. J., & Pretorius, R. (2004). The Husband's Experience of His Wife's Childhood Sexual Abuse: An Exploratory Study and Implications for Couple therapy. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 3(4), 1-21.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a variant of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is a treatment specifically designed to address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Shou et al. 2017). In this group format, CPT will be used to treat individuals who have experienced PTSD, resulting from police brutality. CPT is typically run in a group setting; this form of treatment can be utilized in individual treatment as well (Monson et al. 2013). CPT captures information utilizing; exercise techniques in order for individuals with PTSD to express their internal emotions regarding their traumatic life event that is stored within the brain. Through this technique, clients can associate intrusive or distressing thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks to
Mayer, Adele. Sexual Abuse: Causes, Consequences and Treatment of Incestuous and Pedophilic Acts. Holmes Beach: Learning Publications, 1985.
Everyone’s story begins with family, every experience within this complex system is integrated into who one becomes and what one values. In constructing a genogram of my family of three generations, starting with my grandparents, my parents and myself I have been able to identify patterns on both my paternal and maternal sides of the family. The patterns found were language barriers, affaires, divorce, abuse, anxiety and miscarriages.
According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, an estimated 777,200 children were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect by a protective service agency in the United States in 2008, and 9.1% of these children were determined to have been sexually abused (Draucker, 2011). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a prevalent problem in the United States that is associated with many long term psychological, behavioral, social and physical effects on men and women (Draucker, 2011). These effects can make a person’s life a living hell. They turn someone into a person that they may not have been if the tragic event didn’t happen to them.
What do you do when you experience a life threatening, traumatic event, and months later you are still experiencing the same frightening responses? Individuals who experience trauma are often forced to face their problems long after the event has happened. The first step to dealing with this issue would be to seek professional help as soon as possible so that they may be properly diagnosed and receive accurate treatment to overcome the intrusive symptoms. An individual who is suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have experienced, witnessed, or was affected by a life threatening event. These individuals experience persistent responses that affect their lives drastically. They are constantly overwhelmed and cannot move on from persistent painful memories. They are in a terrifying state where they feel a constant sense of danger. This paper examines Cognitive Behavior Therapy’s (CBT) various Psychological Treatments for PTSD, specifically examining the effects of the Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) approach and its effects on controlling or reducing stressing and intrusive symptoms of PTSD to receive desired outcomes.
Childhood sexual abuse, as defined by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, 1996), includes using persuasion, enticement, and other inducements to coerce a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct or simulation of sexual acts. Survivors of sexual abuse frequently have a legacy of both psychological and physical problem throughout life. There has been considerable literature published in the past 20 years focusing on the long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse.
The thought of completing a genogram on my family was interesting because the majority of my family lives in Liberia. I have an aunt that lives here but we have an estranged relationship and we don’t communicate. The person I could have told me everything about my paternal family was my grandmother. However, my grandmother passed away in 2000 from high blood pressure. My grandparents had six children and the youngest daughter became my source for the information I needed. Doing this genogram has been very difficult for me because I learned that maternal grandparents are deceased and my aunts and uncle are also deceased. My mother is the only living family member that I know of. I never got the opportunity to have a relationship with my mother’s side of the family.
This paper outlines the consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) based on the examination of results from multiple researches previously fulfilled concerning the psychological and physical impact of this crime, information of statistics, warning signs detected, victims’ performances, and emotional state. Sexual abuse causes severe trauma on child victims that will last for the course of their lives, therefore it is critical to identify and improve the therapeutic methods utilized to treat CSA survivors.
After completing my family genogram, I was able to notice the history of a couple of patterns of fusion in particular. One of the relational patterns that stood out was emotional abuse which for the sake of this assignment I have only traced it back three generations, starting with my paternal grandfather Marciano, who endured the aftermath of the WWII and who conceived out of wedlock (COW) from Spanish and Mestizo parents and who married a woman Fidelina, of Chinese and Indian origin, born in El Salvador like him. Based on anecdotal accounts, Marciano was particularly emotionally abusive towards Rosa, my mother, who is also the first born of the couple and COW. Marciano had very high standards of beauty and intellect, which often triggered name calling, insults, and other forms of humiliation aimed towards my mother, causing her to feel belittled and resent his treatment towards her.
Sexual abuse cannot be clearly defined with ease. In fact, sexual abuse is an umbrella term for any sort of situation, whether or not it involves physical contact, in which a sexually immature child is exposed to anything sexual in nature. Because no child is psychologically mature enough for sexual stimulation, the complex feelings associated with it are mentally and emotionally disfiguring. Children who have been sexually abused experience an array of negative emotions such as shame, guilt and anger, and may display oddly withdrawn or distrustful behaviors. They cannot help but feel that they somehow brought the abuse unto themselves (Saisan, et al). One major contributing factor to these severe psychological consequences is the concept of trust. Sexual abuse is, in most cases, committed by a parent or other trusted adult figure. While children are naïve on such adult topics, they can still get an overwhelming feeling that the attention is wrong, yet they are unsure of how to cope with it. If the child has an emotional atta...
As a family counselor three techniques I would use to gather information about individuals and family members of a family are a genogram, lifestyle assessment, and observations. A genogram is a graphic representation of a family tree that displays detailed data on relationships among individual within the family (Dr. Winn handout on genogram). The genogram allows me the family counselor to analyze hereditary patterns, and psychological factors that interrupt the relationships within the family. It will also give insight on various patterns and influences within the family (Dr. Winn handout on genogram). I will be able to gain knowledge of the each member in the family education, occupation, major life events, chronic illnesses, social behavior,
It is most important to understand that children and teens of all racial, religious, ethnic, gender and age groups, at all socio-economic levels are sexually abused. Although there are risk factors that may increase the possibility of sexual abuse, sex abuse can be found in all types of families, communities, and cultures (The Scope of, 2016). Childhood sexual abuse is an important issue to address because the impact of sexual does not end when the abuse ends. Childhood trauma follows into adulthood and can have long-range effects. “Survivors of sexual abuse are at significantly greater risks for severe and chronic mental health issues, including alcoholism, depression, anxiety, PTSD and high risk behaviors” (The Scope Of, 2016). Victims may experience traumatic sexualization, or the shaping of their sexuality in “developmentally inappropriate” and “interpersonally dysfunctional” ways (Effects of Child, 2012). “A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. The child may become withdrawn and mistrustful of adults, and can become suicidal” (Effects of Child, 2012). Overall, the effects and impact of childhood sexual abuse are long lasting and do not diminish when the abuse ends, their childhood trauma follows them into