Practitioners helping adult survivors of child sexual abuse need to be aware of the thought processes of offenders. The premise of Anna Salter's major book is that those who do not recognize an internalized perpetrator when they hear one will often be frustrated by the tenacity of the survivor's self blame. Primarily oriented towards treating adult survivors, this invaluable book will also be useful for treating sex offenders. It includes discussion of crucial issues such as: what clinicians who treat survivors need to know about sex offenders; the different ways sadistic and nonsadistic offenders think and the resulting different `footprints' they leave in the heads of survivors; how trauma affects survivors' world-views;

Crossing Open Ground: Trauma and Transformation

Crossing open ground: Trauma and transformation

But we need to understand healing for what it really is; it is not a vanishing act, but rather learning to live with, in, and through pain, to adjust to our wounding, which cannot ultimately be denied, and to be willing to risk opening to change that will lead to transfiguration.

—Ross (1988, p. xviii)

What is Therapy and What is Not?

Not everything that happens in a therapist's office is therapy. A surprising number of therapists commit grotesque errors; among the most egregious is having sex with clients. This phenomenon seems particularly correlated with child sexual abuse. Twenty-seven percent of Gil's sample of 99 survivors were revictimized by therapists (Gil, 1988), as were 30% of de ...

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