Meeting Families As Far As They Can Go: A Values-Centered Approach To Treating Sexually Abused Children And Their Families

By Adrienne Williams Myers, LCSW,
Jean Holland, LCSW, Drena Fagen, LCAT,
Alexis Howard, LCSW, Sandra Scott, PhD
and Thelma Dye, PhD
Northside Center for Child Development

This paper describes a sexual abuse-specific treatment program
for children that combines creative art therapy groups for the abused child with concurrent supportive, psychoeducational therapy groups for non-offending parents. This program, led by Northside Center for Child Development’s Project SAFE program, has been supported by a grant from the World Childhood Foundation affording the program the opportunity to explore promising practices for ‘treatment reluctant’ families
affected by sexual abuse while providing services that are essentially barrier free. The children and their parents in this program often present with myriad additional environmental stressors and emotional issues including depression, anger, denial, anxiety...

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