Psychotherapy for Children/Young Adults

The first step is to carry out a general psychological assessment of the child.   This is to obtain relevant data about the sexual abuse and also determine the level of trauma experienced by the child.

This assessment is very crucial because the data obtained informs the treatment plan to be designed for the client, based on his or her peculiar experiences and needs.

The next step is to design a treatment plan for the client.  The treatment plan for a sexually abused child, especially a traumatized survivor is usually a combination of trauma relief therapies and other therapies targeted at identified related psychological problems that need to be resolved. Some sexually abused children do develop   maladaptive behaviours as a result of the abuse.   Hence, the treatment plan for such children will also include therapies that would help to modify such maladaptive behaviours.

In very severe trauma cases, such as where the client experiences insomnia or severed depression, the plan will include a combination of psychotherapy and medication, in which case the psychotherapist would have to refer the client to a psychiatrist.

Some of the most commonly used trauma therapies include Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness therapies, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), WHAT IMPACT WOULD THE THERAPY HAVE ON THE CHILD?

Trauma focused therapies help to relieve trauma by helping to tackle trauma reinforcing thoughts and behaviours such as faulty interpretations of the sexual abuse,  self-blame and consequent guilt,  denial and  fear. Cognitive behaviour therapy forinstace helps to change the client’s faulty thought patterns and consequently changes the client’s covert and overt behaviour.

Denial is another trauma reinforcing behaviour that needs to be countered. When an individual experiences a traumatizing event, the first defence mechanism is usually denial.  This is because it is painful to accept that the event actually occurred and also, the very memory of the event is painful.  Hence, the individual finds it more convenient to deny the event and the way to achieve this is to avoid recalling the event.  Unfortunately, the more the person consciously makes effort to block out the experience from being recalled, the more frightening and painful it becomes. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing helps the client to come to terms with the abuse by providing opportunity for the client to fully and repeatedly recall the traumatizing experience until desensitization occurs.   This is when the memory of the abuse no longer hurts.

Psychotherapy also helps to deal with trauma symptoms such as anxiety and phobia.