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APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
The main goal of this therapy is to recontextualize the past acts of abuse, in both the offender's and the victim's minds. This involves reassociating the events so that they are no longer central in the mind of the victim and so that they are understood as wrong in the mind of the offender. For the victim, this means placing the event into the broader context of his or her life. For the offender, this may mean counseling on the moral issues surrounding the abuse or neglect so that the offender understands the wrong they have done. Ultimately, the offender should be contrite and offer that contrition to the victim, who may or may not forgive the offender. Because the therapy deals most often with intrafamily violence, the therapist has the opportunity to work with both the victim and the offender who committed the act of violence or neglect, making the ideal of contrition and forgiveness possible. Children who have suffered from neglect or abuse are a complex population, and work with them will often involve not only the family but also the legal system and the foster care system. Because of this, therapists who wish to work with this population should get some additional training and education about working with these fields. However, with this additional training, the approach as demonstrated in this video may be adopted by school counselors or other counseling professionals working within schools. It is important that schools adopt an approach to working with this population, as the school is often the first place that signs of abuse or neglect are observed. Return to Working With Children Who Have Experienced Neglect or Abuse |
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