treatment and therapy options after child sexual assault

(Good Therapy)

"Though sexual abuse is a traumatic and life-altering experience, recovery is possible. A compassionate therapist can often help those who have experienced rape and other forms of sexual abuse. Self-care and social support can also be vital to recovery..."

(Good Therapy)

"Play therapy is a form of therapy primarily geared toward children. In this form of therapy, a therapist encourages a child to explore life events that may have an effect on current circumstances, in a manner and pace of the child's choosing, primarily through play but also through language. Play therapy, can help individuals communicate, explore repressed thoughts and emotions, address unresolved trauma, and experience personal growth and is widely viewed as an important, effective, and developmentally appropriate mental health treatment..."

Click here for Healing Out Loud's list of Child Play Therapists in New Jersey.

Rather than just talk about the client's problems, somatic therapists guide patients to focus on their underlying physical sensations. From there, the mind-body exercises may include breath work, meditation, visualization, massage, grounding, dance, and/or sensation awareness work. This framework is used in sensorimotor psychotherapy, the Hakomi Method, bioenergetic analysis, biodynamic psychotherapy, and brainspotting.

(Good Therapy)

"Art therapy, a hybrid field largely influenced by the disciplines of art and psychology, uses the creative process, pieces of art created in therapy, and third-party artwork to help people in treatment develop self-awareness, explore emotions, address unresolved emotional conflicts, improve social skills, and raise self-esteem. Art therapy primarily aims to help individuals experiencing emotional and psychological challenges achieve personal well-being and improved levels of function...."

(Good Therapy)

"Family therapy or family counseling is designed to address specific issues that affect the psychological health of the family, such as major life transitions or mental health conditions. It may be used as the primary mode of treatment or as a complementary approach..."

(Good Therapy)

"Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro, is a research-supported, integrative psychotherapy approach designed to treat symptoms of trauma and posttraumatic stress. EMDR sessions follow a specific sequence of phases, and practitioners use bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements, to help the client process unresolved memories from adverse experiences. EMDR can be used to address any number of concerns, and it is compatible with other types of therapy...."

(Good Therapy)

"Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a short-term form of behavioral treatment. It helps people problem-solve. CBT also reveals the relationship between beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, and the behaviors that follow. Through CBT, people learn that their perceptions directly influence how they respond to specific situations. In other words, a person’s thought process informs their behaviors and actions...."

(National Institutes of Justice)

"Therapeutic approaches for sexually abused children and adolescents are designed to reduce the effects of sexual abuse. The effects of sexual abuse can manifest in various ways, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fear, and anxiety. PTSD is the most commonly diagnosed disorder, with estimates suggesting that 37 to 53 percent of sexually abused children eventually develop PTSD (Trask, Walsh, and DiLillo 2011)..."

(National Institutes of Justice)

"A treatment intervention designed to help children and their parents overcome the negative effects of traumatic life events such as child sexual or physical abuse. The program is rated Effective. The treatment group had fewer PTSD symptoms, scored lower on the internalizing behavior and total behavior profile, sexualized behavior and problem behaviors. Treatment group parents scored lower in depression, emotional response and higher on parenting practices and support...."