ABSTRACT
Psychotherapists who work with trauma survivors in general, and with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse in particular, face a special set of issues as they evaluate and address the impact of their work on themselves. These issues relate both to the personal and social meanings of interpersonal violence and child sexual abuse and to the qualitative experience of working therapeutically with clients who are struggling to heal from the devastating impact of such abuse. In this chapter, we discuss ways of addressing the transformative effect on the therapist of doing psychotherapy with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, an effect that we call vicarious traumatization. While our focus is on the impact of working with these particular clients, the concepts presented pertain equally to the therapist who works with other traumatized populations.
