Changes in the treatment of abused children: a retrospective review of a practice

Using the population of sexually abused children from three periods of my practice, I have described changes in my practice of play therapy over the past 30 years. These changes have come about in part due to the pioneering work of psychiatrists specializing in studies of development in children not designated as emotionally disturbed or mentally ill (Chess and Thomas, 1986; Greenspan, 1981; Winnicott, 1953, 1965, 1971) as well those who have described treatment techniques and theoretical constructs of the experience of traumatized children (Finkelhor and Browne, 1985; Terr, 1991). Because of these convincing works, I have been able to shorten treatment, and shift my goals from direct efforts at unconscious conflict resolution to the more indirect but more effective method of re-establishing maturational tracks through involvement of families, dialogue with children in multiple play techniques as well as words, and to plan ahead for these traumatized children. It remains to be seen what the eventual outcome of this change in treatment will be. Although I always ask families and children to keep in touch even by postcard, only about 20% of them do. Naturally, these are families that are doing well. I am not sure that this necessarily means the other 80% are not doing well but I simply do not know. Because all of these patients are known to one authority or another (police, Rape Centers, courts and Department of Welfare) it should be possible to plan long-term studies of treatment outcome at the time of the initial contact. It seems important enough to me to do this because betrayed trust has a very long lag time before its full effects may be seen in the adults these children become. Because there are so many cases of child abuse, defining the relative effectiveness and efficacy of different kinds of treatment could be useful in managing what is, in effect, a public health problem.