An Intersectional Guide for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Their Allies: Masculinity Reconnected
Book Details
- Publisher : Routledge
- Published : July 2025
- Cover : Paperback
- Pages : 240
- Category :
Forthcoming - Category 2 :
Individual Psychotherapy - Catalogue No : 98100
- ISBN 13 : 9781032721903
- ISBN 10 : 1032721901
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Few experiences carry more shame, stigma, and misunderstanding than the life-altering trauma of sexual abuse. Men who experience sexual abuse and rape, often find themselves marginalised and isolated, yet there are few resources available for them or those who support them.
This book examines the impact of sexual abuse on different men through an intersectional lens, exploring how their unique identities, circumstances, and society's views affect their recovery or compound their trauma. Each chapter addresses a topic chosen by hundreds of male survivors who have attended the author’s recovery groups. It includes survivor testimonies, signposts to resources, and reflective activities to help manage the aftermath of sexual trauma. With statutory services, such as the criminal justice system, often failing male survivors, the book draws on Transformative Justice principles to suggest alternative ways for men to break cycles of trauma and move forward with their lives.
Aimed at male survivors and those who support them—counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers, family members, and loved ones—this book offers guidance and hope for navigating a path to healing.
Reviews and Endorsements
Packed full of insights, practical guidance and signposting, this is an engaging, accessible, and deeply compassionate text for male survivors of sexual abuse and their allies—including the professionals working with them. An essential guide for those wanting to navigate this complex, sensitive, but profoundly important field.
Mick Cooper, author of Psychology at the Heart of Social Change
Jeremy Sachs' thoughtful, caring and sensitive exploration of the complexities and nuances of the under-recognised impact of male sexual trauma and abuse will benefit men, their allies, and clinicians in navigating words and experiences hidden by years of emotional turmoil. This essential resource will assist in demystifying survivors' experiences.
Andrew Davidson, Joint Programme Head of the Diploma in Psychosexual Therapy at Tavistock Relationships
This book shares a rare combination of personal insight and professional experience that will benefit everyone affected by sexual violence against men and boys. This is the sort of book that you do not read just once. Instead, you can keep it with you, returning to it as different challenges emerge and subside, knowing that each time you open it you will find something to help you through.
Tanaka Mhishi, author of Sons and Others: On Loving Male Survivors
Given that patriarchal adaptations mean men are often taught to hide, or suppress, the shame of sexual abuse, to have so gentle, yet so pointed and strong, a masculine voice speak on so sensitive a subject says a lot about the power of the prose presented in this volume. This is an emotional, sensitive tome, written from the thoughtful and somatically considered. This book lays out that road, presents pathways for practitioners to work with what is a challenging, little understood, yet hugely important experience for a good number of men. This is therefore a worthwhile, easy to access, deep dive into the experiences of male survivors of sexual abuse, which offers routes forward for practitioners working with these issues in their practices.
Dr Dwight Turner, PhD, Dipl Supvn, Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and Workshop, Facilitator, UKCP Accredited
As a survivor of sexual violence who has also worked extensively with other survivors, I was delighted to see this comprehensive yet accessible guide for male survivors and their allies. Jeremy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and communicates this, through the book, in a way that will resonate with male survivors, whatever their background or experience of sexual violence. It speaks directly to the challenges we all face as we heal and guides the reader through a range of exercises to support the process. Reading this guide took me to a warm place of comfort and reflection and I know it will be life-changing for many male survivors.
Alex Feis-Bryce, CEO Diversity Role Models
An Intersectional Guide for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Their Allies is profoundly moving: emotionally, it draws you into the embodied narratives of male sexual abuse survivors, compelling you to immerse in their lived realities often shrouded in silence. Conceptually, it challenges the very core of persistent myths about what it means to live as, and be, a man. Therapeutically, it provokes a necessary and urgent reckoning amongst mental health professionals, urging us to question how rigid social constructions of masculinity implicitly guide therapeutic interactions with male service users, where silent struggles may be mistaken as stoic endurance.
Dr Nini Kerr, Senior Lecturer in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences, School of Health in Social Science, The University of Edinburgh
In this book, Jeremy Sachs engages the reader with essential information, practical guidance and real-life examples, supported by reflective activities and resources. The emphasis on the impact of intersectionality provides a contemporary and much-needed lens through which to understand the unique difficulties of male survivors. But it is the way that Jeremy writes, making the reader feel understood, supported, and respected, that gives a sense that he is there with you throughout.
Professor Kate Smith, University of Aberdeen
Jeremy has written a profoundly, deeply insightful book that is woven with a wisdom that inspires one's journey to transform trauma into triumph. It is a road map that enables one's own critical reflections to invite personal transformation which in turn has the capacity to create societal transformation.
Arthur Lockhart, Order of Ontario, Founder of The Gatehouse, Toronto & Co-founder of the Survivors Council Canada
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: I’m Glad You’re Here
2. What We Mean When We Say ‘Trauma’
3. Trauma vs Everyday Life
4. Masculinity: How to Build a Man
5. The Stomach-dissolving Experience of Shame
6. Relationships and Family
7. Sex, Gender and Nurturing Our Authentic Sexual Self
8. Trust and the Bitter Legacy of Betrayal
9. Disclosure: the Why, When, and How
10. Coping: the Unsustainable and the Sustainable
11. Moving Forward With Life
12. For the Allies
A Final Message to the Reader
About the Author(s)
Jeremy Sachs is a therapist from London, now based in Glasgow. Since the 2010s, he has run services that support individuals living with trauma or marginalisation, helping them to connect and find community. In 2016, he focused on developing therapy services for men, boys, and trans people who have survived sexual abuse and rape. He runs recovery groups and a private practice both online and in-person.
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