ABSTRACT
A key goal of therapy with harming fathers is that they support recovery of family members, by acknowledging their sexually abusive behaviours and making tactics used to establish and maintain assaults; and secondly by making restitution to those hurt by their actions. The moment of disclosure is feared but nevertheless anticipated by the harming father, who will typically have developed a strategy in preparation for this event. The concept of tactics provides a more complete framework to understand the breadth, depth and impact of actions of the harming father. Typically, tactics evolve over the course of assaults. Often harming fathers and sometimes other family members have struggled with the term extortion as it directly confronts the image that the harming father has promoted of himself and equally the negative image of the child he has likewise promulgated. Achieving a sexual outcome is the primary outcome sought by the harming father.
