Constructivist psychology of child abuse and implications for psychotherapy

Abstract

This paper reviews constructivist and related literature on child abuse and psychotherapy. Constructivist psychology, with its emphasis on the personal, socially embedded construction of meaning, is uniquely situated to contribute to humanistic psychotherapy for child victims and adult survivors. Conversely, work with abused clients deepens our understanding of developmental meaning‐making processes and the social ecologies of meaning within which they unfold.

Constructivist approaches to child abuse are inherently humanistic, focusing on the child victim's and adult survivor's attempts to make meaning of their experiences, including the often traumatic experiences of abuse and the relational contexts in which it occurs. This paper first discusses how constructivist psychology may deepen our understanding of the impact of abusive experiences, the reverberation of those experiences through subsequent living, and the role of constructivist therapies in the healing process. Secondly, this paper explores reflexive aspects of work with abuse survivors that may challenge our cultural and professional assumptions and deepen our commitment to constructivist, humanistic, and feminist psychotherapies.