The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

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As a child in terrible circumstances, you responded the best that you could—and you have continued to do so. It is a deeply moving and spiritually uplifting work that you will want to give to family, friends, and colleagues alike.

The Courage to Heal: In Translation - Ellen Bass The Courage to Heal: In Translation - Ellen Bass

Neither Bass nor Davis have any training in psychotherapy or science, and they state that nothing in the book is based on any psychological theories. It was my way of telling the truth about something I wasn’t sure anyone would believe if they hadn’t lived through it. The book was written as a response to the authors' frequent encounters with women who were the victims of sexual abuse during their childhood and adolescence, and is predicated on the belief that extreme childhood trauma, of which sexual abuse is one, is spontaneously repressed.Abused children often learn to block out their pain, because it is too devastating or because they do not want to give the abuser the satisfaction of seeing them cry. If you feel overwhelmed reading about the long-term effects of abuse, remember that you have already lived through the hardest part—the abuse itself.

The Courage to Heal) - Goodreads Ellen Bass Quotes (Author of The Courage to Heal) - Goodreads

Bass and Davis attributed efforts to confront incest and child sexual abuse to the women's liberation movement. Persons seeking such transformation need boundaries, time, and most of all, choices, and Davis's book shows us that there are multiple doors through which even the most damaged and estranged individuals can find a healing path toward reconciliation. The child in you still equates commitment with being locked into a situation where there’s no escape. The essential trust, sharing, and safety are missing, and in their place there is secrecy, isolation, and fear. Davis provides a vehicle for giving those stories voice, never glossing over the pain or suggesting panacea, but masterfully stitching them together and offering us all a counterpane of comfort, a harbinger of hope.This small, friendly book is perfect for teenagers, people in crisis, or anyone who wants to wet their feet on the topic of healing from child sexual abuse.

The Courage to Heal Workbook – HarperCollins The Courage to Heal Workbook – HarperCollins

And for girls who’ve been pressured into sex they didn’t want as children, growing into a woman’s body can be terrifying.

This capacity to forget explains why many adult survivors are unaware of the fact that they were abused or remember only parts of their experience. They would not be able to do arithmetic with other second-graders, for example, if they acknowledged the depth of their sorrow and desolation.

The Courage to Heal Quotes by Ellen Bass - Goodreads The Courage to Heal Quotes by Ellen Bass - Goodreads

I know that everything I don’t deal with now is one more burden I have to carry for the rest of my life. Davis's narratives reveal the complexity of personal transformation and the challenges of reconciliation with individuals who have caused great harm. While working with students, Bass and Davis came to believe that the stories of some students were trying to convey painful memories of incest.Weaving together personal experience with professional knowledge, the authors provide clear explanations, practical suggestions, strategies, and support throughout the survival healing process -- as well as help, hope and reassurance for families, friends, and caregivers. At twenty-one I was lying in my bed, unable to get up, watching the bugs march across my sheets, thinking I would either kill myself or go crazy. They propose a variety of techniques to overcome their symptoms, including confronting their alleged abusers, adopting an identity as a "survivor", overcoming the associated trauma and in cases where there is no memory of any abuse, recovering the memories. A 1995 review by psychologist and clinician Susan Contratto states that the book was perceived as dangerous by the antifeminist backlash since it legitimized stories of abuse as told by the survivors. I can’t remember who I was talking to or what we were talking about, but I sure can tell you exactly what the window looked like!