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Sexual Abuse Counselling Helps Victims Need To Regain Control Of Their Life

An individual who goes through sexual assault or abuse can develop both physical and emotional trauma. The combination of both can often lead to victims losing control of their life and struggling a lot with normal tasks.

Sexual violence is grotesquely common in our society, and women are the primary targets. However, sexual abuse isn’t just limited to women. Many men and boys also suffer from sexual trauma every year.

Regardless of age and gender, healing from sexual abuse can be a long journey, but it’s possible. One of the most effective ways of healing from the trauma is sexual abuse counseling.

What Is Sexual Abuse Counseling?

Sexual abuse counseling involves using different types of psychotherapy to help victims deal with their trauma and gain more control over their lives. It involves the use of several generic forms of psychotherapy. Generally, during counseling, the individual will talk to and work with a specialist therapist. By talking with a counselor, the individual can get a better understanding of themselves and their experiences. However, working with a counselor doesn’t mean that you’ll have to speak about your experience immediately. A good counselor will work with a patient at their own pace.

How Does A Counselor Help?

A counselor will help the patient get through all the trauma that’s bothering them the most. Many people struggle to talk through their trauma as it’s a harrowing subject. However, experienced counselors understand that it’s essential to work through issues at the patient’s pace. It’s natural to bury trauma deep down and make an attempt to forget what happened. That’s why so many people that suffer from sexual abuse as a child can’t understand why they may be displaying certain symptoms. Aside from allowing the patient to talk about their issues at their own pace, counselors can also employ different psychotherapy techniques to help the individual deal with emotional and physical trauma. These forms of psychotherapy include psychodynamic psychotherapy, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. Let’s take a look at these different forms of therapy and how they work.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

A lot of research indicates that psychodynamic psychotherapy shows many positive results when it comes to helping sexual abuse victims deal with their posttraumatic stress disorder.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is defined by focusing on the effect and expression of emotion. The counselor will attempt to explore aspects of the experience that the victim is trying to avoid. They’ll also identify any recurring themes and patterns while discussing past experiences.

Aside from that, psychodynamic psychotherapy also boasts a significant focus on exploring individuals’ wishes and dreams. The counselor will attempt to stick to these characteristics to help individuals work through their trauma.

None of this will be possible unless the counselor manages to create a safe space where the patient can open up and talk comfortably. That’s why psychodynamic psychotherapy will take place over a significant number of months.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive – Behavioral Therapy

On the other hand, Trauma-Focused CBT is a quick method of helping build resilience for individuals that have gone through a lot of traumas. TF-CBT centers around generating a trauma narrative over the course of several sessions. By effectively managing to gather a trauma narrative, the counselor can then focus on the automatic thoughts and any cognitive distortion that the individual might be surfacing. Through the sessions, counselors can effectively teach the individual how to go about processing and to learn to manage their trauma. Often the most challenging aspect of TF – CBT is the collection of the narrative. A common impeding factor in individuals talking about their trauma is guilt. Many sexual abuse victims ended up blaming themselves for the situation, which makes it challenging for counselors. Hence, it’s essential for counselors to create an environment of kindness and understanding to allow their patients to open up about their trauma narrative.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy

EMDR is a psychotherapy technique that focuses on helping the individual deal with all the distress that comes with trauma. During an EMDR session, the counselor will move their finger in a rhythmic manner in front of the patient’s face. At the same time, the therapist will ask the patient to follow the movement in their eyes. Counselors are free to use other rhythmic techniques like a metronome or simply tapping a pencil. While the patient is focusing on the rhythmic movement, the therapist will ask them to begin talking about their trauma. A little while after, the patient starts talking about the trauma. The therapist will ask the patient to shift from negative thoughts to more positive thoughts to help desensitize the individual from the trauma. The desensitization will make it much easier for the individual to process, analyze, and overcome trauma.

Conclusion

Sexual abuse is shockingly common in society, and that’s why it’s equally important to highlight methods that victims can use to regain more control over their life. Counseling is one of the most effective and accessible methods available to sexual abuse victims. Our counsellors are here to help you begin your healing process.

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