NCJ Number
107328
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 66 Issue: 2 Dated: (March/April 1987) Pages: 125-137
Date Published
1987
Length
13 pages
Annotation
To treat and prevent the sexual abuse of young children, the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic (California) uses a variety of outreach, education, and treatment methods.
Abstract
Since young children (3-6 years old) do not have cognitive awareness of the dynamics of their abuse and are verbally limited, the therapy is structured and directive. The treatment plan consists of parallel groups for nonoffending parents and children in conjunction with individual therapy. Parents and children attend separate weekly therapy groups, but issues addressed in the children's group are simultaneously considered in the parents' group. Group therapy with the children is conducted by a treatment team of child therapists who are volunteers or trainees, directed by a staff child therapist. A high ratio of staff to children is necessary for proper nurturance and limits for the children. Issues typically addressed in the therapy with the children are denial, repression, and retraction; incorporating therapy into the child's play and metaphor; the child's sense of abandonment; illogical beliefs; sexual acting out; sexual knowledge; regression; fantasies about the perpetrator; and assertion. 18 references.