Narrative Approaches to Working with Adult Male Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: The Clients’, the Counsellor’s and the Researcher’s Story

‘This text offers insight into how being listened to, respected, responded to, and encouraged appropriately can enable even the most grotesque stories to take shape, be pulled apart and re-enacted into more healing ones. An engaging read. It demonstrates the deep value of reflexivity and reflection upon one’s own practice and its relationship to personal life, the role of story and narrative both in understanding ourselves and our patients, and the effectiveness of paying attention to the full range of our own and our patients being – physical, social, spiritual, and emotional. This is a complex business and must be accepted as such.’

– British Journal of General Practice

‘The title of this work understates the content, since the book contains far more than the narrative approaches-though this aspect is at the centre of it. It is in fact four books: a case study of two brothers, both sexually abused in childhood; an account of one therapist’s methodology; a characterisation of the impact of child sexual abuse; and a book about and of writing about abuse about adult survivors. Overall, this is a book that anyone working with child sexual abuse should sample.’

– Facts And Fiction

‘The book is an exemplar of collaborative experiential research. The methodology would appeal to all those with an interest in researching the human condition. This book would be of value to nurses who wish to help men who have been sexually abused, to male nurses who are coming to terms with their own experience of sexual abuse, and also to graduate and undergraduate students of nursing research. Highly recommended.’

– Nursing Times

‘I found the latter sections of the book in which the author defends her research methodology to be intriguing and recommend it to any counselling research student as a guide to the thinking which can underlie qualitative research methods. There is far too little research into the process of therapy and to my mind, this book takes us further in our understanding of what factors help those male clients who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and who then seek therapy.’

– Counselling

‘This immensely readable book is different from other ‘text’ books that you will encounter. Stick with it and be enthralled and informed by the process of being caught up in the narratives of four people. When you have finished reflect on how your own personal and professional life has been changed through reading this.’

– Kate Kirk

‘This book is a powerful insight into the process of reconstructing the self following sexual abuse trauma. The book captures the essence of good therapy as a companionable and exploratory process which can release immense creativity. It opens the door to the counselling room in a way which practitioners will find affirming. Reflecting on the author’s personal and professional experience and the survivor’s process, it advocates for a real relationship based on honesty and shared power. This book captivated me and I recommend it to practitioners and trainers and a wider audience concerned with the creative and therapeutic process. The ideas and interventions it contains illuminate and integrate a lot of existing theory a way that inspires the imagination. It is a valuable contribution to the literature and to overcoming the denial of male victimisation.’

– Community Care

This book presents first-hand accounts from two male survivors of childhood sexual abuse and from the counsellor who worked with them.

The two brothers suffered severe sexual abuse from their grandfather and were each unaware of the other’s ordeal. Despite having been subjected to the same abusive conditions their stories of their survival and recovery are very different. They describe the work they separately undertook with a counsellor and discuss a number of issues which include sexuality, spirituality, perception of maleness and relationships.

Kim Etherington goes on to describe the counsellor’s perspective, and draws out the implications for counselling practice. She discusses the client-counsellor relationship, the techniques and approaches she used and makes links with her other work. She explores the significance of boundaries when working with members of the same family and working in parallel with another therapist.

The final part of the book describes the process of undertaking research with ex-clients by describing the creation of this book. Particular attention is paid to the process of informed consent and the ethics of using ex-clients’ work for such purposes. Throughout the book there is an interweaving of the clients’, counsellors’ and researcher’s reflexive process which is layered between metaphors, poems, fairy stories and narrative.