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What Processes Are Involved in Sexual Abuse Counselling?

Sexual abuse is more prevalent than people realize. Nationwide 43% of men and 81% of women have reported dealing with some form of sexual assault or harassment at least once in their lives.

About half of female victims are being abused by their intimate partner, while 40.8% are by an acquaintance. But, this painful and traumatic memory doesn’t have to conquer your life. Seeking sexual abuse counselling is the first step to overcoming the trauma.

For those who want to obtain the proper coping mechanisms, counselling for abuse can set you on the right track. Here is what counselling for sexual abuse victims can offer.

Sexual Abuse Counselling – How Does It Work?

Counselling is a type of talking therapy where abuse victims work with a trained specialist. Counselling offers a space that helps patients obtain a better understanding of their traumatic experience, themselves, and their current situation. Some centers can offer various types of therapy, such as art therapy, bodywork, and group work therapy. A counsellor is not here to force you to talk about everything that has happened. Instead, they understand where you are coming from and offer you the encouragement and support you need. Counselling for abuse victims encourages you to feel safe and heard. These services are done by a specialist and are tailored to your needs. If you need a road map of what counselling looks like, look at the processes below. This is a general overview of the processes involved in sexual abuse counselling.
What Processes Are Involved In Sexual Abuse Counselling
  • Phase 1: Assessing, Identifying, and Presenting Problems
The initial treatment begins with building rapport and language that’s most appropriate to the client’s age. Sexual abuse counselling is not meant for adults only, but children as well. That’s why counsellors will thoroughly assess your problem, match the age-appropriate terms, and avoid any trigger words. A counsellor maintains empathy, comfort, and acceptance. That’s because a lot of survivors are struggling with guilt, shame, and embarrassment. They have a hard time trusting someone. With a psychosocial assessment, the counsellor can identify the best treatment.
  • Phase 2: Finding Strengths to Install Hope
Many victims are feeling stuck, without the ability to move forward. Counselling encourages survivors to break away from their focus on the trauma and find their strengths. It’s about engaging in intrapersonal exploration and separating oneself from the impact of the traumatic event. Simply put, victims get to focus on what they currently have and not what they’ve lost.
  • Phase 3: Spotting the Thought Patterns That Make Victims Undervalue Themselves

With cognitive intervention, counsellors can spot the common distortions that their client is feeling. So, what are common distortions, you might ask? Plenty of victims state: “I’m damaged”, “nothing good will ever happen to me”, “I can never go back to who I was”, “what if I did things differently”, and so on.

Victims find themselves in these patterns and cognitive distortions that impact their self-confidence and perception. A counsellor can help you become more aware of these patterns. The goal is simple – inspire victims to focus on mindfulness. By acquiring more efficient support, you can and will move forward.
  • Phase 4: Focusing on Interventions and Emotion-Based Responses

Someone with a complicated and severe trauma, paired with a lack of coping tactics can feel numb, disconnected from their bodies, anxious, intense, and more. They can also self-harm and self-medicate to try and get some sense of normalcy. So, what makes counselling useful?

Counselling is here to deal with the psychological, social, and emotional health impacts of sexual abuse. A counsellor can help you understand your mind-body communication and the way you respond to your emotional trauma. They can understand your feelings and aid you in obtaining better awareness and responses.

  • Phase 5: Applying a New Meaning to a Traumatic Experience

Once you’ve developed effective coping skills you can create a positive and new language and self-view. You can find meaning in your traumatic event and perceive it with a different mindset. You can finally gain empathy and understanding, which will become a key point in progressing with your life.

Can Counselling Really Help?
It’s perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed and on edge. As if no matter how hard you try, it feels downright impossible to turn over a new leaf. Working with a counsellor can help you tackle the challenges that you couldn’t handle on your own. In sexual abuse counselling, you can learn new coping tactics, manage the feelings, and stress that stem from the traumatic experience. You can explore your emotions, thoughts, and personal behaviors that say more than what you realize. In theory, you may feel as though you can do things alone. But, when you blend the elements of psychological and mental damage, that’s where it becomes necessary to use a more tailored treatment approach that can help you recover that can help you recover. A counsellor can understand you on a much deeper level. They understand your struggles, personality, and perspective. They observe your mindset and help you mitigate the challenges that lay ahead. These are all problems that are better solved with an expert by your side. Now that you know the sheer impact of counselling for abuse, you can find the coping skills that can make a difference.
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