ABSTRACT
Many survivors of child sexual abuse reach out to service providers to address the long-term effects of abuse on their mental and physical health. Receiving appropriate help necessitates disclosure, and for this, the survivor has to trust both the service and the professional. To reveal an abuse history is to be vulnerable and it means revisiting and revealing the fear, horror, and distress inherent in trauma: without trust, this is not possible. Trust is relational and the impact on trust of early years abuse shapes survivors’ specific needs of their caregivers. This chapter draws on 17 survivors’ testimonies and shows how trust can be built or destroyed, and with whom. It foregrounds the role of service provider trustworthiness as a prerequisite to survivor disclosure and before entering a relationship with any person who has power over them. Transactional trust is presented to understand levels of entrusting as relationships are built.
