Play Therapy with Sexually Abused Children : A Synergistic Clinical-Developmental Approach

Therapy is based. Topics covered include rapport building and the beginning of restoration of the child's trust in an adult male, therapeutic contact negotiation, the introduction of metaphor, indirect referencing of the trauma and the process building toward explicit emotional disclosure and metaphoric retribution, the restoration of self-esteem, 'emotional inoculation' against regression, and the emergence of a future-oriented perspective characterized by confidence and hopefulness. Therapists need a clearly defined and well-documented set of guidelines for the treatment of sexually abused children. Abused children become adult perpetrators in numbers disproportionate to the rest of the population, but this dire statistic holds true only for those victims who have not been effectively helped as children. This book offers a means to provide such treatment. [Publisher's text]