Co-Therapy Relationship in Group Treatment of Sexually Mistreated Adolescent Girls (From Sexually Abused Children and Their Families, P 211-218, 1981, Patrica B Mrazek and C Henry Kempe, ed. - See NCJ-93389)

• NCJ Number: 93398
• Author(s): B Gottlieb; J Dean
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Pergamon Press
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

The authors discuss transference issues that arose while they were acting as cotherapists for two consecutive groups of sexually mistreated adolescent girls who had experienced incidents ranging from fondling to intercourse from fathers or stepfathers.

Abstract

The male-female cotherapy model can help sexually abused adolescent girls disengage from disturbed family relationships and begin to establish appropriate peer relationships and solid sexual identities. The girls in the first group were between 12 and 14, while those in the second were 13-14. Both groups represented a wide range of socioeconomic classes and had been referred by county social services. Incest slowly patterns girls into seductive, provocative adolescents, but as they move from family to peer support they often tell someone about the incestuous relationship. Cotherapists must have a trusting relationship and work through concerns that a sexual attraction could develop. Certain sexual issues must be explored, so that therapists can give clear, consistent messages to wary adolescents. Relevant issues for introspection include societal and religious views on sex, birth control, masturbation, appropriate outlets for adolescents' sexual drives, sexual deviancy, incest, sexual vocabulary, feelings and possible fantasies toward the cotherapists, and fantasies about the therapists' private lives. A major transference issue in the first group was the relationship between the cotherapists. The male was seen as a representation of the girls' aggressive fathers, his wife became their absent mothers, and the unmarried female therapist became a representation of themselves -- the victim. Meeting with the male therapist's spouse helped the therapists to deal with this problem. As the therapists communicated their mutual trust, the female counselor became the representation of the idealized mother and had to be careful not to encourage anger with her male colleague. Discussions to help the girls make connections with their pasts and the ways they viewed the therapists, along with the passage of time, changed their negative views of the male therapist. In contrast, the second group was seductive with the male therapist from the beginning and viewed the female as passive and ineffectual. In response, the therapists modeled touching that was not sexualized. The paper includes two references.