R104: Beyond Victimhood: Working with Adult Survivors

And while having the story of one's abuse is better than the alternative, many survivors have become trapped in their identity as victims, and have been poorly served by therapies that required them to dwell on the experience of being abused. This Reading Course explores the essential principles of effective clinical work with survivors, emphasizing the importance of developing a middle path that neither shuts the door to the past nor gets lost in it. You will come away with a range of well-grounded clinical methods for helping clients break through old scripts to uncover their resilience and affirm life. Approaches explored will include those focused on helping clients deal with overwhelming affect, handling self-destructive behavior, learning body-based coping skills, overcoming social isolation, and, determining when-and if-reconciliation between survivors and their abusive families is possible.

Course Readings

Don’t Look Back: The Price of Having Too Much Grit by Richard Schwartz

End of Innocence: Reconsidering Our Concepts of Victimhood by Dusty Miller

You Can Go Home Again: Laura Davis Learned that Sometimes Being in Relationship Means More than Being Right by Mary Sykes Wylie

Four Types of Reconciliation by Laura Davis

The Third Reality: How to Move from Conflict to Coexistence by Mary Jo Barrett

Learning Objectives

1. Trace the shifts in trauma treatment from the '80s to the present
2. Discuss the role of the therapist in Family Dialogue Project
3. Distinguish between brittle resilience and compassionate resilience
4. Explain the importance of going slowly in working with sub-selves