Recounting Graphic Sexual Abuse Memories in Therapy: The Impact on Women's Healing

• NCJ Number: 216164
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 3 Dated: April 2006 Pages: 173-184
• Author(s): Brenda Spitzer; Judith Myers Avis
• Date Published: April 2006
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This Canadian study investigated the impact on women’s functioning and the process of healing of recounting during their therapy the graphic details of sexual abuse they had experienced in childhood.

Abstract

The findings revealed that women felt negatively impacted during their therapy by talking about sexual abuse details. However, study participants also believed that after therapy they were positively impacted by the earlier recounting of abuse details. This reversal of the earlier time period is in accordance with clinicians who support talking about abuse details as an important part of healing. Although much has been written from the perspective of researchers and clinicians about the risks and benefits of memory work in therapy, there is much less written about how clients, the survivors themselves, experience this work as part of their healing process. This study addressed the current gap in literature regarding memory work in the child sexual abuse survivors’ therapy by examining the impact of memory work from the client’s perspective, specifically its impact on the client’s functioning and the process of healing. It examined whether memory work was experienced as beneficial or detrimental by comparing the functioning of women whose therapy differed in the degree to which it involved recounting graphic details of abuse. The study sample consisted of 59 women from Southern Ontario who had completed therapy. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. Five variables were examined: (1) participants’ types of memories before, during, and after therapy; (2) participants’ functioning in five areas before, during, and after therapy; (3) the impact of working with abuse memories on participants’ functioning; (4) the helpfulness of therapy approaches experienced; and (5) participants’ beliefs about what was important for healing from sexual abuse to occur. Tables, figure, and references