Freedom at Last: Healing the Shame of Childhood Sexual Abuse 

By Beverly Engel, LMFT.  (2022) 

From Amazon.com: “Childhood sexual abuse (or child sexual abuse/CSA) is not only an assault on the body—it is an assault on the mind and on the spirit. It is an insult to the victim’s integrity, her self-esteem, his very being. Besides imposing a significantly higher risk of conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, suicidality, substance abuse, and learning & educational difficulties, the most devastating consequence of childhood sexual abuse is shame. Freedom at Last will help victims of this form of abuse recover from all aspects of this extreme shame and its damaging after-effects.

Not only does shame from CSA cause a multitude of problems, but this very same shame stands in the way of a victim’s ability to recover and heal. Victims often struggle with shame’s correlation with dissociation, difficulty forming relationships, emotional barriers to disclosing abuse and seeking help, and a lasting negative effect on victim’s sense of self.

In this groundbreaking book, leading psychologist Dr. Beverly Engel reveals the truth about how CSA affects victims, dispels common myths surrounding this type of abuse, explains the nuances behind the emotion of shame, and teaches readers how to develop more self-awareness about how shame has manifested in their lives along with powerful and effective shame-reduction strategies.

Freedom at Last offers effective strategies for not only healing the negative effects of abuse-related shame, but also to help overcome the shame that keeps survivors from seeking help. Using the most recent research along with her 35-year career working with victims of child sexual abuse, Dr. Engel provides a blueprint for readers and their loved ones to overcome the debilitating effects of shame, including strategies for emotional release, encouragement to free themselves from their secrets, teaching self-forgiveness, eliminating shame-causing behaviors, and removing shame from unhealthy behaviors and attitudes.”

Trauma: Childhood Sexual Abuse

Trauma: Childhood Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

By Susanne Babbel Ph.D. MFT. Somatic Psychology

Posted March 12, 2013

At PsychologyToday.com

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-psychology/201303/trauma-childhood-sexual-abuse

Has Your Teen Been Sexually Assaulted?

Has Your Teen Been Sexually Assaulted?

The Psychological Signs of Sexual Abuse

By Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, MS, LPCS, Teen Angst

Posted November 30, 2011

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/teen-angst/201111/has-your-teen-been-sexually-assaulted

7 Ways to Help a Teen Survivor of Sexual Assault

7 Ways to Help a Teen Survivor of Sexual Assault

Advice from an advocate for survivors of sexual assault

By Kathryn Stamoulis, PhD, The New Teen Age

Posted July 19, 2012

At Psychologytoday.com

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-teen-age/201207/7-ways-help-teen-survivor-sexual-assault

Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse

Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse, by Dr. Patti Feuereisen,‎ Caroline Pincus (Contributor) (2009)

From Amazon.com: The statistics are staggering. One in four girls will experience sexual abuse by the time she is sixteen, and 48 percent of all rapes involve a young woman under the age of eighteen. It’s not surprising then, that in a society where sexual abuse of young women is rampant, many women never share their stories. They remain hidden and invisible.

In her pioneering work with young survivors through the last thirty years, Dr. Patti Feuereisen has helped teen girls and young women to find their voices, begin healing, and become visible.

In this revised second edition, Dr. Patti’s gentle guidance and the girls’ powerful stories continue to create an encouraging message: Remarkable healing is possible if girls learn to share their stories in their teens and early twenties. With a new introduction, new chapters, and updated resources, this new edition of Invisible Girls has even more to offer girls, young women, and those who care about them.