NCJ Number
115732
Date Published
1986
Length
24 pages
Annotation
These guidelines for the treatment of young children who have been sexually abused emphasize the need for case management and teaming and recommend individual modified play therapy for children between the ages of 2 and 9, combined with an emphasis on mother-daughter rebonding.
Abstract
The information is based on experience with 25 long-term cases seen between 1979 and 1983 and treated for periods of 7 months to 2 years. The recommended treatment approach is modified play therapy that adds other intervention techniques including education, some behavior modification techniques, and the use of audiotape and videotape equipment. Treatment phases include crisis intervention, short-term therapy lasting up to 6 months, and long-term therapy with the goal of establishing a trusting relationship. The therapist must consider several treatment issues, including the 'damaged goods' syndrome, guilt, fear, depression, low self-esteem and poor social skills, repressed anger and hostility, blurred role boundaries and role confusion, and pseudomaturity, and self-mastery and control. Additional issues that are important in working with younger children include teaming with the child's mother, inappropriate attachment behavior, infant regressive behavior, the need for body contact and body awareness, and the need for education on feelings. Several specific factors in the child and the mother can indicate their readiness for termination of treatment.