Total Credits: 3 including 3 American Psychological Association, 3 Association of Social Worker Boards, 3 National Board of Certified Counselors
Have we helped to keep intrafamilial sexual abuse a secret by lumping it under the name of Trauma? Have we assisted in sweeping this form of sexual abuse under the rug like so many of our clients and their family members do?
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.
Mary Jo Barrett, MSW, is the Executive Director and founder of The Center for Contextual Change, Ltd. She is currently on the faculties of University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, The Chicago Center For Family Health, and the Family Institute of Northwestern University. Previously, Ms. Barrett was the Director of Midwest Family Resource and has been working in the field of family violence since 1974. Mary Jo was the first Family Preservation, in home counselor in the state of Illinois, on a contract with the Department of Children and Family Services in 1978. Ms. Barrett’s newest book, Treating Complex Trauma: A Relational Blueprint for Collaboration and Change, co-authored by Linda Stone Fish, was released in June 2014. Her trainings and published works focus on the teaching of the Collaborative Change Model, systemic and feminist treatment of sexual abuse, interpersonal violence and complex trauma; both survivors and offenders, adults and children, and eating disorders, couple therapy, and Compassion Fatigue.