My Body Protests: Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Body

Daphna–Tekoah, Shir

doi:10.1080/15325024.2018.1549179

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Listening to veterans demands a specific understanding of trauma, silence, and memory (Raynor, 2022). We thus listened to each interview several times and read the transcripts according to the guidelines of Carol Gilligan’s Listening Guide (for details on the Listening Guide and its application, see Gilligan, 2015; Gilligan & Eddy, 2021; Harel-Shalev & Daphna-Tekoah, 2020a), which is particularly suitable for listening to narratives of trauma (Daphna-Tekoah, 2019): Through sensitive guided listening, the Listening Guide enabled us both to hear several “voices” of the same interviewee and to identify silences.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The various types of dissociative processes should be clearly distinguished, one from the other (van der Hart, 2021). Specifically, it is important to differentiate between a dissociative disorder and the natural process of dissociation that occurs as a normal response to a traumatic event (Daphna-Tekoah, 2019). Dissociation could be seen as a coping mechanism that enables a person to adapt to certain traumatic situations (Gilligan & Eddy, 2021; van der Hart, 2021).…”

Section: Trauma: a Biological–psychological–social Injurymentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants.

Daphna-Tekoah,

Harel

2023

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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Objective: The current research aims to explore the nature of trauma experienced by female combatants. Method: Data were collected from two focus groups and a series of personal interviews with 100 women military veterans who had served in the Israel Defense Forces as combat or combat-support soldiers. Results: Interviews with these veterans revealed a variety of narratives about their war experiences, including an intertwining of the emotional and the physical. The ongoing danger and traumatic events that the combatants and combat-support soldiers faced on a daily basis were woven into their stories. These narratives indicated that—alongside their exposure to traumatic and potentially life-threatening situations—the soldiers also felt empowered and valued as a result of their military service. The women soldiers’ perspectives regarding their military service covered three main themes, “experiencing trauma,” “meaningful combat experiences,” and “the need to be heard.” Conclusions: Through qualitative research and narrative analysis, this study offers mental health professionals, policy makers, and scholars ways to gain a nuanced insight into women’s combat trauma that avoids categorization. Based on the research findings, we suggest that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women soldiers, who face a “double battle”—combat, with the attendant trauma, and the gendered biases of the masculine military environment. Our findings suggest that there is value in engaging with and listening to diverse narratives of trauma and emphasize the need for a critical perspective in the study of trauma and combat trauma.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Trauma: a Biological–psychological–social Injurymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants.

Daphna-Tekoah,

Harel

2023

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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“…The various sexual difficulties of CSA survivors can be viewed through a trauma prism. For example, a growing body of knowledge reveals that trauma is reflected in the body and that the memory of the trauma lies in the somatosensory system (Ensink et al, 2016; van der Kolk, 2014) and can account for CSA survivors’ various physical conditions, such as chronic pain, or fibromyalgia (Daphna-Tekoah, 2019; Tsur, 2020). As for sexual function, traumatic experiences that included touch are thought to be stored in the body as implicit memories and unpleasant sensations, and the survivor’s ability to experience sexual pleasure is thus seriously impacted (Gewirtz-Meydan & Ofir-Lavee, 2020; Zoldbrod, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex in the Shadow of Child Sexual Abuse: The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Post-Traumatic Sexuality (PT-SEX) Scale

Gewirtz‐Meydan

Lassri

2022

J Interpers Violence

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Sexual-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (sexual-related PTSS) refers to the traumatic reactions that are replicated during sexual activity among survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA). However, the construct of sexual-related PTSS have been adapted from clinical work with survivors, and research with limited examination of the scales themselves. Given this gap, the current study offers the development of a new measure (PT-SEX) that examines sexual-related PTSS. The study was conducted online, among two convenience samples of women survivors of CSA (study 1 included 451 women and study 2 included 330 women). Six reliable PT-SEX factors emerged from Study 1: Dissociation during sex, intrusiveness during sex, shame and guilt in regard to sexual aspects, pleasing the other during sex, interpersonal distress, and hypervigilance during sex. Study 2 revealed survivors of CSA had significantly higher sexual-related PTSS levels as compared to participants without such a history. Also, post-traumatic stress disorder and sexual-related PTSS made unique and unshared contributions to the observed data, including sexual self-esteem, sexual motives, relationship satisfaction, compulsive sexual behavior, and mental health. CSA significantly moderated the associations between sexual-related PTSS and sexual self-esteem, sexual motivations of self-affirmation and coping, and depression and anxiety. Findings from the current study show that over time, the trauma of CSA seems to be implicated in survivors’ sexual experience. As sexual difficulties are accompanied by sexual-related PTSS, these symptoms are unlikely to resolve by trauma-focused therapy and must be actively targeted in therapy.

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“…Research also suggests that many adults, despite increased societal awareness and understanding of child sexual abuse, continue to be poorly informed about the behaviour of sexually abused children and the underlying dynamics of such abuse (Shackel, 2009). Child sexual abuse is a physical assault upon the body and is considered a complex traumatic experience affecting both body and mind (Daphna-Tekoah, 2019; Felitti, 1991; Levine, 1997; Porges, 2011; Van der Kolk, 1994). However, adults’ perceptions and beliefs regarding the ways in which sexually abused children express themselves may rely on the words they say, while bodily manifestations remain unacknowledged and understudied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The body as a site of knowledge: Tacit and embodied narratives of child sexual abuse

Herland

2022

Qualitative Social Work

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Research on child sexual abuse has underacknowledged the multifaced, tacit and embodied dimensions, leaving the literature without a full picture of events that are often unspeakable, especially with regards to disclosure. This study thus placed emphasis on and highlighted the importance of increased awareness around lived lives and bodily narratives of child sexual abuse. The qualitative study consisted of 14 in-depth, retrospective interviews with Norwegian participants over the age of 18 who experienced child sexual abuse. The analysis shed light on the participants’ silenced and embodied experiences as children, captured by two overall narratives: a) the body speaks the truth and b) living with embodied messiness, complexity and confusion. The narratives that unfolded in participants’ recollections of their childhood embodied stories contain reflections on how the experiences are re-played within their bodies as adults. Study findings focus on participants’ embodied narratives of child sexual abuse – experiences that are often not captured by verbal language. The narratives brought forward in the interviews are linked with participants’ past experiences and current context, as well as interpersonal, emotional, cognitive and embodied processes, as part of the participants’ meaning making around their child sexual abusive histories. Study findings help explain embodied, tacit and complex dimensions concerning lived experiences of child sexual abuse. As such, this research speaks to the field of social work that encounters children and families facing this phenomenon.

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My Body Protests: Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Body

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

“Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants.

“Routine trauma”—Awareness of combat trauma in women combatants.

Sex in the Shadow of Child Sexual Abuse: The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Post-Traumatic Sexuality (PT-SEX) Scale

The body as a site of knowledge: Tacit and embodied narratives of child sexual abuse

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