Healing for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

By Bonnie J. Collins and Kathryn Marsh

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570251657
• ISBN13: 9781570251658
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Whole Person Associates
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 6.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Healing for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

I use this book for my survivors group and the group members love it. The best part is how the book promotes bonding among the group members. I have had nothing but good reports about this book from my clients. This book can also be used for other traumatic events in people's lives other than childhood sexual abuse. Thank you...

Excellent resource book for those working with adult survivo

This book gives a clear, step-by-step method for therapists working with adult survivors of sexual abuse. The writing is basic and no-nonsense - an excellent guide for those working in the field.

Very well done and immediately useable for all clinicians

As a group therapist who has faciliated time limited groups for over 12 years, I highly recommend and support the work of Bonnie Collins as outlined in this important book. Her program utilizes a structured 12 session group model that addresses all aspects of the group participants. Mind, body and spirit. Compassion, skill, tremendous sensitivity are woven into this treatment model. For example, Bonnie is aware of the normal anxiety of these women discussing such issues in public and in a group setting, that she has written material available for the group members upon walking into the first group session, as a way to bind some intial expected anxiety. The approach is not solely a cognitive one--the excercises outlines and suggested are often times experiential in nature. Well thought out and easilly read. I especially liked the handouts, assessment tools, and suggested letters offered at the end of the book. A must read for anyone working with this difficult issue in a group setting.

A senistive guide that focuses on safety and healing.

Bonnie Collins and Kathryn Marsh's book Healing for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A 12-Session Group Treatment Program, published by Whole Person Associates out of Duluth, Minnesota is a wonderful model for professionals who choose to facilitate groups for survivors of incest. Although the book is written for adult survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse, I feel it can be adapted to adolescent survivors as well. The user friendly style in which the guide is written allows for easy adaptation. The authors have thought of everything from the comfort of chairs chosen to experiential exercises to develop safety. They truly attempted to put themselves in the shoes (chairs) of the survivors they serve! Collins and Marsh start with the item survivors need most - SAFETY - an item that is taken for granted by many non-survivors! Choices are given at every turn - something that survivors may also see as very foreign. The survivor is in control of whether they contribute or not. Survivors need to hear that they have permission, even if it seems redundant. Ms. Collins and Ms. Marsh recognize their very important role of re-parenting and providing for a corrective emotional experience. Inner Child Work and the use of song/lyrics entitled How Could Anyone exemplify this process clearly. The anger releasing idea of throwing ice cubes into a bathtub sounds like it could be a winner in terms of getting the different senses involved with this process. It's also an affordable way to "rid the rage." The use of meditation and relaxation done in a structured, predictable way allows for the subtle implementation of spirituality and understanding that can offer healing on a different level to those who partake. The "earthquake" guided imagery exercise helps significant others of survivors. This visualization exercise may allow the respective parties to better understand what a survivor goes through, how a flashback may be elicited, or what it might look like. After reading this book, I have decided to use this model as a guide for the teenage survivors I work with. Don't miss out on the well developed insight and knowledge that Bonnie Collins and Kathryn Marsh put together to use in this sensitive, delicate and rewarding process. Such practical tools of this nature may take years for a therapist to collect. Here it is , all in one single book! Andrea M. Binner, M.S. Ed., C.S.W. Supervisor of the P.A.C.T. Program Hamburg, New York