Healing Child Sexual Abuse with Body Psychotherapy

Grace’s story

During therapy Grace disclosed that she had been a victim of child sexual abuse. Her intimate relationship with her husband was deteriorating due to occasional flashbacks during intercourse of her grandfather’s rough hands forcing her legs apart.

With gentle probing, Grace revealed that her grandfather used to visit her room at night when her parents were asleep. She used to lay frozen with fear as he stripped off her pyjama pants, touched her private parts and performed oral sex on her.

Understandably, Grace avoided oral sex. All it took was the feel of her husband’s hands on her inner thighs for Grace to be flooded with anxiety. I explained to her that her body remembered her grandfather’s touch and all the associated feelings of dread, which kept her from experiencing a fulfilling, mutually enjoyable sex life with her husband.

Grace engaged in a course of body psychotherapy which helped her to create new associations with intimate touch. One exercise that she found particularly useful was creative visualisation.

Grace was asked to create a safe place in her mind. She then had to envisage a perfect sexual experience with her husband. She was instructed to vividly imagine every sight, sound, smell, taste and touch that accompanied the encounter as if it was happening in the moment.

Gradually Grace incorporated an image of her husband lovingly stroking her inner thighs and performing oral sex with her. If she felt anxious at any time, she stopped. As her associations started changing, she became more daring in her sexual fantasies and reported that she was taking real pleasure in her sex life for the first time in her adult life.

Grace reported that one of the best outcomes was that she felt a sense of taking control in her visualisations, which allowed her to communicate to her husband what did and didn’t work for her during intercourse. As her relationship with her husband improved, and with the help of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Grace’s depression lifted, which in turn assisted with her bonding with her son.

*All names and details of case studies have been changed to protect clients’ privacy. The accompanying photo has been modelled.

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