ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy is a form of treatment in which time and space are redefined for an hour a week. During this sacred hour, boundaries are honored, certain rituals are maintained, everything else is shut out, and another world exists outside the door of the therapist's office. It is a place where what the survivor has lived through is honored and respected. Dolan (1992) discussed the process of healing;
Sexual abuse is a veritable baptism by fire. If survivors don't let it destroy them—and every person has to find his or her own way to accomplish this—the inevitable work required to overcome the effects of abuse will make them exceptional people. Some clients of mine have compared recovery to a shamanic journey. In the shamanic tradition, a person suffers a terrible trauma, gathers up every bit of inner strength he or she has and survives. After the trauma has occurred, the act of moving beyond it—coming to terms with it and then healing—is the vehicle for becoming personally gifted and exceptional. This is the role of Shaman or Healer. Sexual abuse survivors are healers of themselves and hence, Shamans. . . . Enduring is perhaps the most crucial condition for moving beyond the abuse and fulfilling hope in creating or reclaiming a life worth living, something to treasure, (pp. 23-24)
