Therapy for Sexual Related Abuse

Therapy for Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse can take many forms. It may include rape, incest or any form of sexual contact that was not consented to. A sexual abuse therapist can help you to deal with past events that have included sexual abuse and will show you that most of the time, there are other more complex issues involved. Many sexual attackers use sex in an attempt to overpower victims and show them that they are in control.

Trained to understand you

Counsellors or psychoanalysts can help victims of sexual abuse in many ways; they can give support immediately after the event of can provide therapy to help with ongoing symptoms of stress, panic and fear. Many professional therapists will be able to help you and will make it possible for you to live without the symptoms of past sexual abuse always being present. Because they are trained to understand your trauma, they will take the time to build a trusting relationship with you, thereby enabling you to feel safe and no longer exposed.

Types of therapy

Some of the therapies that may be used are:

• Exposure therapy – if you have a specific fear and are afraid to enter the type of place where the attack took place or you feel worried when you see people who look similar, then exposure therapy can work to lessen your fears and resultant bad feelings.
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) – this can help you by using a specific sort of eye movement to enable the brain to be re-wired to change the way you recall the sexual abuse and react to it.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – this can help by changing the way that you think automatically. For example, if you now avoid intimate relationships, CBT will help by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, enabling you to work towards having relationships again.

If you would like us to put you in touch with a counsellor or analyst that makes use of therapy to treat sexual abuse, fill in the form below. We will identify a practitioner that is suitable for you and who will be able to assist.