Abuse history
April 23, 2021 2:24 PM Subscribe
Question about working with a possible history of sexual abuse.
I've always had a sense that I may have experienced some kind of sexual abuse at a very early age. There are these moments of disassociation, extreme negative feelings about sex that I am sometimes flooded with, and some external validation of my belief about this from family members. I doubt I will ever know exactly what happened - and that's not necessarily my goal.
I am working with a therapist about this and attempting to connect with the complex feelings I have around this, including the way my current sexuality and general ways of being may have been impacted by traumatic early experiences.
My question is, what resources/books/articles/etc would be useful for me to turn to that address this specific scenario - of unknown and unknowable specifics about early trauma and boundary violations? Most resources I know of seem to be focused on knowing details of specific traumatic events. I don't have that experience.
I prefer resources/therapy modalities that have basis in research not just pure theory or pop psychology.
I've always had a sense that I may have experienced some kind of sexual abuse at a very early age. There are these moments of disassociation, extreme negative feelings about sex that I am sometimes flooded with, and some external validation of my belief about this from family members. I doubt I will ever know exactly what happened - and that's not necessarily my goal.
I am working with a therapist about this and attempting to connect with the complex feelings I have around this, including the way my current sexuality and general ways of being may have been impacted by traumatic early experiences.
My question is, what resources/books/articles/etc would be useful for me to turn to that address this specific scenario - of unknown and unknowable specifics about early trauma and boundary violations? Most resources I know of seem to be focused on knowing details of specific traumatic events. I don't have that experience.
I prefer resources/therapy modalities that have basis in research not just pure theory or pop psychology.
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And also general research on implicit memories can be useful as trauma is often not stored like a narrative memory event. Example of how this discussion unfolds here. Dr. Schwartz specializes in this type of trauma by the way.
Trauma therapies like EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and probably Somatic Experiencing can work on sensations and emotions (implicit or preverbal memories) even if they aren't tied to any narrative or visual information. Some forms of trauma therapy can't do this, and require more fully formed narrative memories.
posted by crunchy potato at 8:46 PM on April 23, 2021 [4 favorites]