Effective Group Therapy with Male
Survivors Of Sexual Abuse
To be an incest survivor suggests that there has been a mutation in the rite of sexual initiation. For a man, this aberrant initiation can incur tremendous losses: in the trust and safety with one's own caretakers, in body boundaries and image, in the modulation of feelings and the naming of them, and most profoundly, in the loss of self.
It is more difficult for men to acknowledge that they have been abused, usually because of societal, cultural and familial stereotypes. They often experience self-doubt and shame concerning their sexual identity and/or sexual orientation. Regardless of whether the perpetrator was male or female, it is terrifying and anxiety producing for a man to enter a group for sexual abuse survivors.
The work of individual therapy is both a journey of self restoration and griefwork. The work of skillful group therapy is to provide a context to reclaim oneself in connection with other survivors through the renewing transferential experiences both with facilitators and one another. What happens together is not just a rerun of the past. The experience with other group members who share a similar history and the reparative transference with the co-therapists can affect recovery emotionally, cognitively, relationally, and spiritually.
The writers are a male and female co-therapy team. We use a psychoanalytic systems model with the boundaries and rules appropriate for the work: Group members must be in individual therapy while attending the group. The patients sign a release so that the therapists can have ongoing communication with the client's individual therapist to ensure effective coordination of treatment. Each potential group member is interviewed for a history of abuse-reactive perpetration.