title: Confronting abusers: the opinions of clinicians and survivors.
abstract: Confrontation of an abuser is often regarded as a powerful process in clinical work with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This paper explores direct and symbolic forms of survivors confronting their abusers via a review of the current literature and the self-report of 12 female survivors, post-therapy. Six of the survivors had chosen to directly confront their abusers and six had not. Their experiences and opinions are presented together with a discussion of important issues within this area and the need for further research.
authors.affiliation: The Psychological Health Service, Tees & North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, c/o Stewart House, 53 church Street, Hartlepool, TS24 7DX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Freshwater
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ainscough
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Toon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D019548:Crime Victims; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011586:Psychology, Clinical; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*