Group therapy with sexually molested children

It should be stressed that the young children's group was only a part of the overall treatment approach that forms the family context of the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program. Because the therapists also work with entire families, they have come to accept that the child is not the only victim. Often the mothers and fathers in this program were themselves victims of sexual assaults when they were children, and have carried this victim roles with them into adulthood. A child growing up in this family system will learn the victim role well. Her denial and/or fear of sexual aggression, as well as her role models for parenting, will perpetuate the cycle and make the sexual abuse of her own children a distinct possibility. The play therapy treatment seeks to break this cycle and restore the young child victim's self-respect by teaching new skills and providing different role models. The therapy seeks to help her tap her own power to become an adequate adult. Such therapeutic "undoing" or self-reconstruction is a long process which probably takes as many paths as there are victims. Adults victimized as children frequently report periods of repression and denial, and it is likely that direct treatment of the child victim, when the incest comes to light, mitigates against development of such repression. The natural healing process must be respected. The child needs time to integrate the experience and its painful aftermath. Changing and healing do not take place all at once, or after one period of intervention. Therefore one important aspect of such therapeutic work is to give the child victims the tools to reach out for help and support in the future, when the pain of this early childhood experience may once again be an obstacle to growth.