Abused Women and Survivor Therapy : A Practical Guide for the Psychotherapist

Rating:
Summary: Useful and informative
Review: Current societal beliefs and the impact on victims of sexual abuse is something any psychotherapist should be aware of. The tendency to blame the victim is still very much present throughout our society and even in psychological practice. Regrettably, I doubt that psychiatrists and psychotherapist who still hold such traditional beliefs would ever buy this book in the first place. Is there any value in this book then for those who already are aware of the negative impact and the implicit assumptions we often have about women and victims of sexual abuse? It definately is if you want to be more informed and incorperate the main principles of survivor therapy in your clinical practice. Even though many of these principles such as safety, empowerment, validation and an emphasis on strenghts appear to be self evident, they do deserve special attention when carefully considering the societal impact in the destruction of these principles in women. However, do not expect this book to be giving you a detailed approach to survivor therapy in how to use it in practice however. Only a small part of the book is dedicated to this specifically, which is probably the greatest weakness of the book. Many more interesting connections could have been made between societal beliefs and the principles of survivor therapy. If society in itself forms the theoretical foundation of survivor therapy, then this could have been made more explicit and approached in a more methodological manner, which would have led to a more detailed explanation of what survivor therapy exactly is.