Una apuesta por la formación de formadores

Survivors of CSA and mental health professionals tended to note that friends are viewed as more supportive than family members when disclosing CSA. Whilst reactions in literature note that being listened to, being believed and providing emotional support were positive social reactions (Ahrens et al., 2010), these findings demonstrate the powerful effect that normalisation often has on survivors. Mental health professionals noted that survivors spoke with friends more so than family, and tended to choose those who could share and relate to the ‘abnormal’ experience:

People… tend to talk to their best friends, or their best troubled friends… people who had obviously had a ‘Yeah, me too’ sort of experience… - MHP 6

Bella also highlighted this stating she felt too embarrassed to disclose her CSA experience at the time to her friends. However, with age, she also became increasingly aware that many others had also experienced similar incidents. Therefore, she became more open with the ‘me too’ friends, who responded in a supportive way. Bella found it was particularly helpful when friends talked about how “pathetic” the perpetrator was, and how he could not “get anyone

consentually” his own age. Bella’s lack of psychological distress (as the inclusion criteria for participation for this study required) could be partly attributed to viewing the perpetrator in disempowering terms, which is consistent with Leahy et al.’s (2003) study.

However, positive support was not always received by friends and resulted in secondary victimisation. Dora explained how the reaction of her friends regarding her CSA experience left her feeling alone, unsupported and was in some ways, more traumatic than the CSA itself:

I never… I just never felt like anyone really cared – like [to] make sure I was OK, to talk to me about it… everyone just sort of dodged it, and I understand now it’s because it’s uncomfortable for people, but at the time I was like, “nobody cares”… [I] didn’t feel like my friends cared and so [that] probably… caused me to be all silly and that, [more] than the actual [CSA] event.

The reactions from Dora’s friends perhaps still have an effect on her, with a common and natural reaction of isolating herself and abusing being minimised as “silly”. Dora continues to discuss how these reactions caused further

traumatisation:

I think that was even worse than what actually happened… that I never felt like anyone cared… because even they didn’t go into it with me and sort of left it… even to this day, I probably still hold a little bit of resentment to them for that…

Dora’s account of how negative social reactions made her feel worse than experiencing the CSA event itself, clearly illustrates secondary victimisation. This is corroborated by research suggesting that lack of social support is associated with the survivor continuing to feel victimised, long after the abuse has ceased (Lorentzen et al., 2008). Experiencing secondary victimisation is also associated with

dissuading the survivor to attempt disclosure again, in effect silencing them (Ahrens, 2006).

Mental health professionals discussed possible reasons for society’s negative reactions to disclosures of CSA by survivors:

People minimise… that’s a human survival strategy… as a society, sexual abuse is abhorrent… we don’t even want to acknowledge that a parent has the

capacity to do that… we don’t want to believe that, so we try to deny… - MHP 9. As previously noted, society’s perceptions can result in male disclosure of CSA being challenging. However, mental health professionals raised the issue of disclosure of CSA being even more problematic by survivors who were victimised by a woman, due to society’s stereotypes of sexual offenders:

I think the group that it is hardest for are people who have been sexually abused by their mothers, because no one’s going to believe that of a mother, and for a long time, even in the feminist sexual assault field, there was absolute denial around that. - MHP 8.

Literature substantiates this particular issue, where survivors of abuse perpetrated by females thought to be more susceptible to negative reactions from mental health professionals, such as disbelief and minimisation (Denov, 2004).

5.5 Summary

This chapter analysed data from both survivors of CSA and mental health professionals and described the common presenting and associated difficulties when survivors seek therapy. These included attachment, relationship and revictimisation issues, as well as sexual intimacy and parenting issues. Mental health issues were also noted and included depression, anxiety, substance abuse, insomnia,

posttraumatic stress symptoms, borderline personality traits and eating disorders. Some gender differences were observed by mental health professionals, with males tending to experience issues with shame, their sexual identity and anger and violence. Mental health professionals noted differences in communication style between male and female survivors of CSA. However, it was also stated that gender differences were minimal, due to more similarities than differences existing in response to trauma.

Finally, both CSA survivors and mental health professionals described survivors’ experiences of disclosing to informal supports, characterised as family and friends. While few participants noted positive and supportive reactions, it seemed that more negative reactions were prevalent, which was damaging to the survivor.