ABSTRACT
Introduction: Child Abuse Model Much of psychotherapy has shifted from a medical model in which non-organic patients are viewed as sick to one in which they are seen as having been abused by improper parenting, gender stereotyping, and /or cultural values and stigma . Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is becoming a more frequent diagnosis . The concept of child abuse has expanded from physical beatings and sexual perpetrations to include various forms of emotional, verbal, and spiritual assaults . Symptoms of these forms of abuse have been hidden in our culture for some time. For example , Western society has considered it appropriate for white males to feel better-than, invulnerable, perfectionistic, angry, anti-dependent, and hierarchically compet itive (Mellody, 1989, p. 27) while women were to feel less-than, have no boundaries , be codependent caregivers and carry the more vulnerable feelings of hurt, fear, and sadness for the male.
