Transforming Trauma: A Guide to Understanding and Treating Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

by Anna C. Salter

Practitioners helping adult survivors of child sexual abuse need to be aware of the thought processes of offenders. The premise of Anna Salter′s major book is that those who do not recognize an internalized perpetrator when they hear one will often be frustrated by the tenacity of the survivor′s self blame. Primarily oriented towards treating adult survivors, this invaluable book will also be useful for treating sex offenders. It includes discussion of crucial issues such what clinicians who treat survivors need to know about sex offenders; the different ways sadistic and nonsadistic offenders think and the resulting different `footprints′ they leave in the heads of survivors; how trauma affects survivors′ world-views;

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Aka Anna Salter

Anna Salter, Ph.D., is a forensic psychologist and internationally known authority on sex offenders. She is the author of novels featuring Dr. Michael Stone. She also lectures worldwide and has written two academic books on sex abuse. Dr. Salter is in private practice in Madison, Wisconsin, and consults to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Reviews

[Ellis Amdur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna Salter is one of the few clinicians who works with and assesses both victims and perpetrators of abuse. I would recommend skipping or skimming the two wordy forwards by other clinicians. The first section, on the behaviors of perpetrators, is marvelous. You will get accurate research and descriptions on what perps actually do – not what they say to minimize or excuse their violations. This section will be valuable for members of the criminal justice system as well as therapists of survivors who must understand perpetrators to understand victims. The second section, on the experience of victims is also excellent. I find the last chapter, on treatment of victims, to have much very valuable general information on therapy, but I have two rather significant disagreements.

1. I am very wary of any therapy model that uses the idea, much less encourages the victim to see themselves as speaking in various “voices” – the ‘guardian,’ the ‘sadistic abuser.’ All to often, this encourages the suggestible patient in self-hypnosis and can end up creating more pathology, particularly dissociative identity disorders (so-called multiple personality disorder).

2. I have found that therapy is most effective when one assists the patient in experiencing how different they are from who they believe they are. Rather than just an experience of ‘acceptance,’ or ‘safety within the therapy,’ I have found victims become survivors fastest when they learn how to survive. This accomplished, they are far more able and ready to reorganize themselves in relation to their traumatic experiences. In particular, patients who learn how to fight, including self-defense, and even the use of weapons, learned from a seasoned instructor who is familiar with kind of dilemmas that survivors of sexual abuse must live with, is invaluable. For many, one cannot consider oneself healed until one clearly knows that an attempt by another to violate them again will be dealt with differently from when they were helpless.

In short, I loved more than half the book, and I have reservations about the other half.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent professional resource. I pick it up constantly. One of the very few that discusses differences between survivors of sadistic perpetrators v the more common grooming predator. Even though there are fewer survivors of sadists, they need help, and among the wonderful guidance is a brief outline for differentiating between the types of victims. The older I get, the more important this difference seems to me, and this is one of the very few resources that even mentions how these victims can get lost if we don't meet their unique needs and different ways of coping. I do hope someone is taking a deep interest in this work and furthering it. Anna Salter is a gem to the trauma community, and anyone treating trauma survivors should read this book more than a few times.

[Kate Woods Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a textbook, essential reading for those in the business of transforming their own trauma, or the trauma of others. Anna Salter is a particularly empathetic teacher--and a particularly self-aware one--who recognizes and battles the unfortunate human tendency to blame the victim.