ABSTRACT
Not all children who have experienced sexual abuse can tell such symbolic or complete stories; in fact as this book will confirm repeatedly, what many choose to do with art materials is to make a tremendous mess. This story contains many important themes for the abused child: the experience of physical damage, the sense of injustice, feelings of isolation, the absence of the mother, the fear of dying, the longing to feel whole and healthy again. A feature of the story is the implication that the piglet’s recovery from the assault begins when the x-ray is taken, the child showing symbolically how important it is for a window to be opened onto her internal world and specifically to her experience of internal damage. Once this damage has been acknowledged, further steps on the road towards recovery, though shaky and uncertain as in this story, become possible to visualise and to achieve. It is my conviction that art therapy and the art therapist are particularly well placed to offer sexually abused children and young people the opportunity to look at and contemplate the views through such inner windows.
