Youth Advocacy & Therapy Tips

I recently read a comment from a child advocate that speaks to the core of why advocacy is such an important service for young survivors of sexual abuse in our communities: "I've been working for decades now with children who have experienced significant harm. Each of them expected nothing more or less from life than what they'd experienced." Ultimately, our goal in child advocacy is to help young people envision and pursue a life that is more than and different from the trauma they have…

Sometimes a video is worth a thousand words! Some of these videos are intended to demonstrate techniques for therapists, and some can be shown directly to child clients. If you like a particular video, do a search to see if it is part of a series by the same person or group, as several of these are. The duration of the video is in parentheses after the name.

Helpful Thoughts: CBT Activity (6:35)…

Community sexual assault programs may receive inquiries from parents, caregivers, and professionals about how to understand and respond to children's sexual behaviors. It may be helpful to think about children's sexual behaviors as existing on a continuum — some sexual behaviors are healthy and normal, some are problematic, and others may become abusive. The resources below can help parents and professionals identify which behaviors are developmentally appropriate, which behaviors may be…

An unpublished report based on a Department of Justice study titled "Preventing Revictimization in Teen Dating Relationships" has just been released, and contains some thought-provoking results. The study was conducted under the direction of Dr. Anne P. DePrince of the Traumatic Stress Studies Group of the University of Denver. Briefly, they conducted research with high-risk adolescent girls involved in the child welfare system, with the goal of preventing revictimization. They tested two…

Trauma can profoundly affect children's development. In an article highlighted on the website Zero to Three (National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families), Dr. Theodore Gaensbauer discusses the "Developmental and Therapeutic Aspects of Treating Infants and Toddlers Who Have Witnessed Violence." Dr. Gaensbauer's framework for understanding how trauma affects children has even wider significance, applying to older children and to those affected…

When youth in one study were asked if they knew "where to find resources for GLBT youth experiencing dating violence," only 10% identified domestic violence or sexual assault services (Freedner et al., 2002). Many sexual assault programs struggle to reduce barriers for teens to access their services; in the case of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning) youth, the barriers may be even more substantial. It's important to note that the term "teen dating violence,"…

"For someone to heal from PTSD, one must learn how to control bodily reflexes. PTSD causes memory to be stored at a sensory level-in the body. Yoga offers a way to reprogram automatic physical responses…What is beautiful about Yoga is that it teaches us—and this is a critical point for those who feel trapped in their memory sensations—that things come to an end."

—Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Trauma Specialist

As therapists working with sexual abuse…

Including siblings in treatment permits families to realize the maximum benefits of therapy for the victim as well as each family member.

—Baker, Tanis, & Rice, 2001

A child can't help being affected in some way by the sexual abuse of a brother or sister, but siblings' needs are often overlooked.

Nonabused children whose siblings have been abused may have to deal with:

• confusion because adults do not…

Providing advocacy services for children and teens who have been sexually abused often requires specialized knowledge and skills. Ensuring that your young clients and their parents are fully informed and supported means having specific information about things such as:

• The rights of child victims
• The procedures for a child medical exam
• Confidentiality and consent considerations for minors
• Mandatory reporting
• The roles…

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a therapeutic technique that helps clients to deal with trauma and disturbing memories. Developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., in the 1980s, EMDR has been extensively researched and found to be an effective method of treating posttraumatic stress. The theory behind EMDR is that trauma memories must be disrupted not only cognitively but also neurologically, allowing the brain to handle past trauma in a different manner. EMDR is…