ABSTRACT
Recent awareness of the sexual abuse of children has caused considerable anxiety among workers as they search for appropriate skills in communicating with children who may have been abused. Workers’ own reactions to abuse are invariably strong. Feelings of anger, disgust and revulsion may cloud initial judgments of the best way to help the child. The child who perceives a worker’s shocked reaction will beat a rapid retreat, confirming its impression that the subject is not acceptable and cannot be discussed. Therefore the workers’ first task is to become aware of their own reactions to abuse, so that these cease to take them by surprise. Many training courses use experiential methods which can help with this. Then workers are more able to offer an open and accepting response to children’s communication, able to empathize with a child’s pain, guilt or confusion without being overwhelmed by it. Support and consultation need to be available as a matter of course for any adult working with abused children.
