Sexually abused children and post-traumatic stress disorder

Sexually abused children often develop post-traumatic stress disorder, a distressing and debilitating condition that is typically unresponsive to non-directive counselling. Empirically supported abuse-confronting, structured interventions are urgently required for use by counselling psychologists responsible for the management of this challenging clinical population. Given the success of cognitive-behavioural interventions with adult trauma victims, it has been suggested that this treatment approach be applied to sexually abused children. This paper presents a cognitive-behavioural treatment framework comprising two levels of intervention: child therapy and parent training. We selectively review emerging empirical support for the efficacy and acceptability of this treatment approach.