Narratives of personal and professional experiences of psychotherapists working with cases of child and adolescent sexual abuse: A qualitative longitudinal study

Abstract

BackgroundStudies delving into the personal and professional experiences of psychotherapists working with children and adolescents who have been sexually abused are scarce and mostly cross‐sectional.AimThe present qualitative longitudinal study aimed to describe the narratives that therapists construct about their personal and professional experiences of working with children and/or adolescents who have been victims of sexual aggression during different moments of the psychotherapeutic process.MethodEight psychologists were interviewed and asked about the psychotherapy of 12 cases they were developing. These cases were of children and adolescents who had been sexually abused. Each participant was interviewed at different moments of the cases' psychotherapy (6 months into the process, 12 months into the process and once more at the end of therapy for those who received therapy for longer than 12 months). A total of 34 interviews were conducted and studied through narrative analysis.ResultsThree major themes involving the personal and professional experiences of psychotherapists emerged: regarding the patient and their family; regarding the institutional context; and regarding the personal/professional experience. Also, identified and analysed convergences and divergences that appear within these themes at different points in the participants' interviews are highlighted.DiscussionThe findings suggest that therapists manage to navigate the most complex and distressing aspects of each intervention case in the earlier moments of the psychotherapeutic process and later are likely to have an emotional connection with pleasant or satisfactory elements in their work and are likely to end treatment with an appreciation for the learning experiences they have had working with challenging cases and a sense of amazement at the resources and resilience of the children and adolescents they work with.