Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Gentile, MD; Email: julie. The composite cases are not real patients in treatment. Any resemblance to a real patient is purely coincidental. Sexual assault and abuse can result in severe physical and emotional trauma to the victim. Deploying targeted psychotherapeutic treatment that is individualized for the survivor is important to achieving optimal patient outcomes.
There are several valid and evidence-based treatments available for posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD and interpersonal difficulties that can result from sexual abuse and assault. In this article, the authors discuss psychodynamic psychotherapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy TF-CBT , and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy EMDR for the treatment of patients following sexual assault and abuse.
The authors also provide practice points on common issues in the management of the treatment of sexual assault survivors, including transference, countertransference, and avoiding retraumatization. Composite case vignettes are used to illustrate treatment techniques.
Keywords: Sexual abuse, sexual trauma, transference, countertransference, trauma. The intersection of sexual assault and psychotherapy is complicated. It was not until relatively recently that the treatment of survivors of sexual assault came to be under the purview of psychotherapeutic treatment. In this article, we review these psychotherapeutic treatment methods in regard to managing this patient population and provide additional treatment suggestions to assist therapists in achieving optimal outcomes among survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy has been shown to be effective in treating patients with posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD that might have resulted from sexual assault. When treating a patient who has been sexually abused or assaulted, these distinctive features of psychodynamic psychotherapy remain the focus of the treatment. Composite case vignette 1. A is a year-old woman who has survived multiple instances of sexual abuse and sexual assault from men of authority in her life.
