ABSTRACT
In this chapter I demonstrate how feminism and post-structuralism can be used to inform and enable therapeutic work with women and girls who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. As Chapter 4 illustrates, feminists have argued that because child sexual abuse represents a worldwide social problem it is not simply a personal experience, but is also a political issue. This is important because without a coordinated political response those that are made subject to abuse remain isolated and vulnerable. A political analysis also calls into question the ways in which those that have been abused are treated by the so-called helping professions. This is not only in reference to the additional abuse and neglect women routinely face in mental health and social care services around the world (as noted in Part 2, Chapters 5±8). It is also in terms of the ways in which therapies, whether psychological or pharmaceutical, can be used to undermine women's individual and collective empowerment by ensuring women's experiences of abuse remain internalized as personal problems.
