Conscious Empowerment Therapy: A Model for Counseling Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse

Abstract

Dysfunctional family systems with elements of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse exist in all societies. The trauma of the abuse experience creates inappropriate defense systems which tend to repeat themselves from generation to generation. Conscious empowerment therapy, which is based on transactional analysis theory, addresses the consequences of these forms of abuse. Diagnosis is aimed at recognizing fixated defenses and negative introjects. Interventions are designed to repair damage to each ego state individually. The treatment process comprises, among others things, a specific series of interactions between the ego states of the client and significant others in the family system. The contract between counselor and client includes giving theoretical information and describing the purpose of all interventions. Systemic dysfunction in both the original and the abusing family patterns is disrupted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bea Conroy

Yvonne Retief is a Regular Member of the ITAA and a Family and Relationship Counselor for FAMSA (Society for Marriage and Family Life), Pretoria, South Africa. She has been involved in this field since 1981 and has a particular interest in the dynamics of families in which emotional and sexual abuse occur. She has pioneered CET and did presentations of her theory at international family therapy conferences in Amsterdam in 1993 and 1994.

Beatrice Conroy is a Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst who lives and works in Pretoria, South Africa. She is a registered social worker and divides her professional time among her private practice, a family counseling center in Mamelodi, and FAMSA.