ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the victim-centred family approach that was developed and refined over 25 years' practice at Cedar Cottage. It presents the principles that inform work before discussing the ways in which these are translated into therapeutic approach. The chapter discusses core dynamics of child sexual assaults that provide a useful framework for understanding the connections between harming father's tactics of abuse and the impacts on the victimized child and other family members. It concludes with a summary of findings of a series of research studies of the Cedar Cottage Program. In addition to findings about rates of re-offending, the chapter provides information about the nature and severity of the sexual abuse, the victimized children and about some other important outcomes of the program. The chapter proposes a framework for understanding child sexual abuse that highlights the connections between the tactics of the harming father, the impacts of these on the victimized child and other family members.
