ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an emerging theory from a qualitative, grounded theory based research programme that has explored challenges for effective therapeutic care of survivors in a cultural context where rape is interpreted as sexual taboo, hence a source of defilement and danger for self and other. The ideas presented in this chapter are also based on 10 years of clinical work on trauma from sexual violence. The proposed therapeutic theory suggest that supporting rape survivors requires a special attention to the way they conceive and approach the relational universe; as well as the way members of their social and family environments perceive them. We present three categories of relationships upon which the therapeutic process is built: (1) relationship with self; (2) relationship with therapist or caregiver; and (3) relationship with others – understood here as any physical or imaginary or spiritual being considered as significant by the survivor. Reaffirming the health benefits of relationships, the chapter also explains how the proposed therapeutic theory helps build and nurture resilience as well support efforts to achieve posttraumatic growth among survivors.
