The Talkative Chair: A Child's Experience of Sexual Abuse Intervention

Abstract

As part of a special issue of J.S.T. on “Client Voices,” the paper presents an edited transcript of an interview where two clients explain their ideas about their therapy experience to their therapist. The presenting issue was the concern of a mother that her daughter was experiencing aftereffects of childhood sexual abuse. The daughter was concerned that her privacy be respected. The girl had previously experienced an extremely intrusive form of interrogation to determine the veracity of her accusation against her stepbrother. The paper describes the therapy and presents the new understandings that the therapists developed by listening to the clients talk about their experience of therapy.