Her-story in the making: Therapy with women who were sexually abused in childhood
- by
Amanda Kamsler
This chapter discusses some of the problematic aspects of the ‘traditional’ cultural stories about: the long-term effects on women of child sexual assault, and therapy approaches for working with these women when they identify difficulties in their lives. Some alternative ideas are outlined about how a therapist can participate with women clients who experienced sexual assault in childhood, to enable them to go beyond the oppression of the dominant, pathologising stories they have about themselves so that they may begin to have access to new, empowering stories about their own resourcefulness and survival. Knowledge gathered from women’s stories of their experiences demonstrates how a therapy process that assists clients to locate their experiences in new stories about their resourcefulness leads to them finding and evolving new possibilities for their lives.
