Adolescents' experiences of psychotherapy following child sexual abuse

The aim of this study was to explore adolescents' experiences of psychotherapy following sexual abuse, complementing those studies that focus on outcomes and measurement of symptom change across the course of therapy and building on recent stud-ies that focus on the process of psychotherapy for young people who have experienced sexual abuse, from their perspective. Re-cent reviews have highlighted the need for tailored approaches to therapy. Research is needed that focuses on young people's experiences of therapy to help develop such tailored approaches. In this study, 16 young people aged 15-18 years who were at-tending specialist sexual violence therapeutic services were in-terviewed. Using thematic analysis, six themes were identified as reflecting their experiences of therapy following sexual abuse. Young people spoke of not wanting to attend; the importance of choice and not feeling pressured in both initially attending and in how the therapy unfolded; how helpful it was to talk; the cen-trality of the relationship with their therapist; the benefit of at-tending a specialist service; how helpful it was when the therapist explained things; and finally, the coping skills they learned in the therapeutic work. A key learning from the study is the importance of respecting young people's autonomy fol-lowing such violations of trust and psychological integrity. The study highlights how engagement in therapy may be experi-enced as a re-enactment of an experience that was forced on the young person. Further qualitative research exploring this phe-nomenon could guide therapists on how to minimise such re-en-actments in therapeutic work.