Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy After Child Abuse: The Treatment of Adults and Children Who Have Experienced Sexual Abuse, Violence, and Neglect in Childhood

This book presents a coherent and readable narrative review of current views on the effects and role of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the treatment of children and adults who have experienced childhood abuse and neglect.

Recent decades have seen an explosion of research into the extent of child abuse and into the effects of early relational trauma on the developing minds and brains of children. The lasting effects on survivors are increasingly recognized and can be addressed psychotherapeutically.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy After Child Abuse is unique in two ways. Firstly, in bringing together for the first time the considerable scientific evidence of effectiveness and the vast body of accumulated clinical experience using psychoanalytical approaches in the treatment of people who have experienced childhood abuse. Secondly, in being the product of the widest collaboration of individuals and organizations concerned about the effects of child abuse, and experts on child abuse and psychotherapy. These include experts by experience, survivor groups, activists, academics, and clinicians: paediatricians, physicians, child and adult psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

This book is intended for practitioners of psychiatric, psychological, and psychoanalytic therapies and providers of mental health services to children and adults. It should inform Primary Care Trusts, Children's Services commissioners, and health service providers about theoretical approaches and therapeutic practice involved in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It includes a review of the evidence for psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and the place of psychoanalytic assessment and psychotherapy in a stepped care psychological therapy service.

Sections cover:
- the epidemiology of child abuse
- different aspects of child abuse
- health consequences in children and adults
- memories of abuse and the recovered memories controversy
- high risk groups
- gender
- domestic violence
- how early relational trauma interferes with early development and leads to disturbed attachment
- impaired emotional regulation
- dissociation