I Never Told Anyone This Before: Managing the Initial Disclosure of Sexual Abuse Re-Collections (Paperback)

“I Never Told Anyone This Before” is the first book that will enable you to work in an ethical, effective manner, based on empirically tested guidelines, with clients who disclose memories of sexual abuse You'll find that these guidelines result in the creation of a helping environment conducive to the sharing of traumatic re-collections. At the same time, this environment is structured to keep you free from legal risk amidst the “false memory” debate era.

With “I Never Told Anyone This Before”, you will overcome your specific concerns for working with special populations, such as persons who aren’t sure they’ve been abused, persons who are nonverbal, men, and persons who have suffered head injuries. This book also provides you with a language for discussing sexual abuse memories in a manner that focuses on the clients’ experiences. You will explore practice techniques that are based on theoretical foundations, as well as real helping situations with examples from actual therapy sessions. Other specific areas you will learn about in “I Never Told Anyone This Before” include:

how to facilitate and manage first-time disclosure of abuse stories
therapeutic use of memories of sexual abuse
the function of memory in identity formation
facilitation of disclosures of traumatic history
avoiding legal risks for therapists in view of the false memory debate
memory as it is treated by psychodynamic, cognitive, and developmental theorists
caveats for researching the disclosure of sexual abuse re-collections

Faced with the prospect of working with a possible survivor of childhood sexual abuse, you may be unsure about the therapeutic approach to take. Current controversy highlights the possibility that persons may be harmed rather than helped in the therapeutic process. “I Never Told Anyone This Before” provides you with a combination of theory, research, and practice that will put your anexities at ease.

Contents Acknowledgments

Introduction
A Psychotherapist's Dilemma
Theoretical Issues
Chapter 1. Moving Beyond the Debate: Theoretical Perspectives
Psychoanalytic Drive Theory
Cognitive Psychological Theory
Folkloristic Studies
Sociology of Knowledge
First-Time Telling
Chapter 2. Revisionist Vocabulary
Child Sexual Abuse
Re-Collections
Life Narrative
“Self”
Dis-Integrated Re-Collection
Epiphany Experience
Integration
Disclosure Issues
Chapter 3. From Disclosure to Integration: Processing Re-Collections of Sexual Abuse
A Theory of Re-Collection
Chapter 4. First-Time Stories: The Structure of Therapy
First-Time Disclosure in the Group Setting
Chapter 5. First-Time Stories: The Interactional Context
Interactional Strategies
Structural Context
The First-Time Stories
Triangulation Interviews
Clinical Techniques
Chapter 6. Therapeutic Implications
Traumatic Stories As Life Narratives
Therapist Nonaction
Controlling the Process
Chapter 7. Therapeutic Techniques
Setting the Stage
Making Choices, Taking Responsibility
Summary: The Components of Successful Therapy
Chapter 8. Special Considerations for Special Populations
General Guidelines for Work with Special Populations
Specific Needs of Special Population Groups
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Troubleshooting
Unique Client Populations
The Role of Family
Work in the Context of the Treatment Team
Editing the Traumatic Story
Appendix: Research Methods
Research Questions
Method
Participants and Setting
Data Collection
References
Index

I Never Told Anyone This Before

Managing the Initial Disclosure of Sexual Abuse Re-Collections

By Janice A Gasker

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