Treating Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse: How Are We Helping Our Clients Heal?

Treating Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse: How Are We Helping Our Clients Heal? is organized by Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) and will be held on Jan 21, 2025.

Description:
Child sexual abuse impacts more Americans annually than cancer, AIDS, and gun violence combined. One in three to four girls and one in five to seven boys are sexually abused before they turn 18 and the overwhelming incidence is within the family or a well known person to the child. These statistics are well known to us and they have not decreased through the years. Intrafamilial sexual abuse is a subject that often makes clinicians recoil. All the most well known perpetrators of sexual violence in the news are not those cases.

This will workshop will bring the fact that a vast number of our trauma clients are victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse and their treatment must be enlightened about the nuances of this complex developmental trauma.  Through didactic video tape examples and discussion, we will explore the nuances of the treatment. The building of safety, the impact of attachment is often uniquely different. In this workshop, we will be exploring interventions for the crisis of discovery and disclosure, understanding of how being related to a perpetrator impacts the therapeutic relationship, and understanding the dynamics of sibling sexual abuse. Specific treatment interventions of family therapy when the sexual abuse is current between family members and family of origin work when our clients are adults will be discussed.

Participants will learn a three stage model of treatment: The Collaborative Change Model.  This model will guide the professional through a blueprint for change, teaching specific interventions as well as a culturally sensitive systemic approach to intrafamilial sexual abuse.  

Objectives: 
After this session, participants will be able to:

• Define the nuances of intrafamilial child sexual abuse.
• Utilize a comprehensive assessment model that is based on family and social political variables.
• Implement therapeutic techniques when working with victims and perpetrators of intrafamilial sexual abuse.