recovery

This article is an overview of child sexual abuse, its effects on adults, and the stages of recovery. The stages of recovery are of particular benefit to partners as they provide a road map to help understand what your partner is going through, and where they are going. The stages are: Denial, Confused Awareness, Reaching Out, Anger, Depression, Clarity of Feelings and Emotions, Regrouping, and Moving-on.

Link: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/familyviolence/html/nfntsxagrsexa…

This article in the Irish Times is the author's thoughts on how society is also at fault - along with the abusers, the state, schools and churches - for allowing sexual abuse to happen. By not talking about the abuse and shunning those survivors who have come forward with their stories of abuse, society adds to the secrecy and blame that abusers thrive on. In this way, society at large is then complicit in the sexual abuse of children.

Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0108/1230936761387.html

This website targets 'pastors and other religious professionals' with information about abuse, how it affects survivors, and ,notably, how it affects family members and family dynamics. While it is targeted to pastors religious professionals, much of the information is not specific to religion at all. In the Family Member section it has some good information on how spouses of abused persons are affect, and in the Family Dynamics section it talks about three different roles a survivor may take on in the family, and discusses the effects of each of those roles.

Although the journals, books and research cited are a bit dated, this site is a good overview of abuse and how it affects survivors, partners and families.

Link: http://www.recoveryfromabuse.com/wordpress/

SECASA is based in Australia and on this page they present a good overview of child sexual abuse and the recovery process for adult survivors.

Link: http://www.secasa.com.au/index.php/workers/50/133

This article appears on the Australian Institute of Family Studies; it presents an overview of the effects childhood sexual abuse has on adult survivors. Among the issues it reports are alcoholism, intimacy, self-esteem and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It's a good overview and worth the time for partners of survivors to read.

Link: http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues9/issues9.html

This is the site for Jim Hopper, PhD., a researcher, instructor and therapist who specializes in child abuse. One of his pages addresses resources for partners, spouses and friends of adult survivors. His site has a lot of good, useful information.

Link: http://www.jimhopper.com/abstats/#res2

Author Meredith Maran wrote this article for Brides magazine in 1987. It's more from the survivor's point of view, and it gives an idea of how relationships are affected by sexual abuse.

Link: www.meredithmaran.com/mag_bride_abused.htm

This book is geared towards men who are in relationships with female survivors.

Link: www.amazon.com/Helping-Female-Partners-Childhood-Sexual/dp/0921165382

This article - Couples therapy for women survivors of child sexual abuse who are in addictions recovery: A comparative case study of treatment process and outcome - talks about how survivors may be more prone to addictions (the author cites 45% of female survivors experience alcohol addiction), and the role that couples/marriage therapy plays in the recovery process. They review a number of cases and come to five assertions in their conclusion:

1 - Couples therapy is of benefit, mostly with communication skills and problem solving
2 - Marital burnout, if at high levels at pretherapy, can be improved through couples therapy
3 - The benefits of couples therapy may be compromised by high stress levels in the family household
4 - Long-lasting effects may not be evident until some time after therapy has been completed
5 - A decrease in the level of depression reported by more troubled partners is not a good indicator of couple improvement

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_200101/ai_n8943277

Allies in Healing is one of those 'must read' books for partners of sexual abuse survivors. It gives a lot of good information about what you and your partner may be going through, and what you might expect in the future. It focuses mainly on the survivor's perspective.

Link: www.amazon.com/Allies-Healing-Person-Sexually-Abused/dp/0060968834