ABSTRACT
Sexual abuse is the ultimate betrayal of the child at boarding school. All of society, including the mental health professions, is affected by our cultural sexual heritage. Traditionally, instead of sexual guidance, boarders inherited an ever present paranoia about sexual exploration with self or others from the nineteenth century, culminating in the risible and delayed sex instruction usually known as the 'leavers' talk' -a ritual of mutual embarrassment that enlightened no one. Dr. Willem Poppeliers' somatic sexual psychotherapy, Sexual Grounding Therapy, is still little known in Britain, but specialises in the therapeutic repair of adults' unmet childhood sexual developmental needs. In 1935 Iain Suttie suggested Freud's taboo on sex was mostly a male displacement of love. When parents are not on hand to provide mirroring then the sexual parenting function is devolved to the peer group or to the staff. Sexual abuse recovery work is always lengthy and subject to highs and lows.
