The Use of Therapeutic Stories in Counseling Child and Adolescent Sexual Abuse Survivors

Abstract

Counselors will regularly counsel children and adolescents with histories of sexual abuse and be challenged with providing supportive and empowering interventions that serve to move the client from victim to survivor status. Therapeutic stories are a creative counseling technique that can be used when counseling child and adolescent sexual abuse survivors. Theoretical support and guidelines for using therapeutic stories when counseling sexual abuse survivors are presented. In this article, case examples, sample therapeutic stories, and applications of therapeutic stories are provided.

Keywords:

• counseling
• therapeutic stories
• sexual abuse
• child
• adolescent
• creativity