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Information & Resources

Useful Links

Some resources that may be of assistance to survivors.

Rape Crisis Network Ireland

The national sexual violence specialists and representative body for member RCC. The RCNI role includes the development and coordination of national projects including expert data collection, supporting Rape Crisis Centres to reach best practice standards, and using their expertise to influence national policy and social change.

CSO Sexual Violence Survey 2022

The most up-to-date statistics on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. The research was conducted with more than 4,500 respondents, comprising a nationally representative random sample.

Mayo Women Support Services

Under the governance of SAFE Ireland National Social Change Agency CLG. MWSS is the lead agency in Co. Mayo providing a range of supports for women and children living with domestic violence.

Active Consent

The Active Consent Learning Hub, launched in 2023 is the first national and publicly available online resource for sexual consent education and awareness in Ireland.

Safe Ireland

Working at a national level to end domestic violence and make Ireland the safest country in the world for women and children.

Women’s Aid

A national, feminist organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse through advocating, influencing, training, and campaigning for effective responses to reduce the scale and impacts of domestic abuse on women and children and providing high quality, specialised, integrated, support services.

One in Four

Helping adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, their families, and those who have engaged in sexually harmful behaviour. One in Four works in all aspects of sexual violence in an effort to break the cycle of abuse.

Books

The Courage To Heal: A Guide For Women Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse (2002) by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

Based on the experiences of hundreds of child abuse survivors, The Courage to Heal profiles victims who share the challenges and triumphs of their personal healing processes. Inspiring and comprehensive, it offers mental, emotional and physical support to all people who are in the process of rebuilding their lives. The Courage to Heal offers hope, encouragement and practical advice to every woman who was sexually abused as a child and answers some vital questions, including:

How do I know if I was sexually abused?
Where does the decision to heal start?
How can I break the silence and who will listen?
How can I re-build my self-esteem, intimacy and capacity to love?
What therapy, support groups, self-help programmes or organisations are available?

WE BELIEVE NONE OF THESE BELIEFS ARE TRUE.

Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Is a Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child (2013) by Laura Davis

“But what about me?”
“Is it possible to go one day without dealing with the survivor’s issues?”
“Will we ever make love again?”
“Will the survivor love me in the end?”
“How do I know if I should throw in the towel?”

Based on in-depth interviews and her workshops for partners across the country, Laura Davis offers practical advice and encouragement to all partners—girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, and lovers—trying to support the survivors in their lives while tending to their own needs along the way. She shows couples how to deepen compassion, improve communication, and develop an understanding of healing as a shared activity. Addressing partners’ most important questions, Allies in Healing covers:

  • The Basics—answers common questions about sexual abuse.
  • Allies in Healing—introduces key concepts of working and growing together.
  • My Needs and Feelings—teaches partners to recognize, value, and express their own needs.
  • Dealing with Crisis—includes strategies for handling suicidal feelings, regression, and hopelessness.
  • Intimacy and Communication—offers practical advice on dealing with distancing, control, trust, and fighting.
  • Sex—provides guidelines for coping with flashbacks, lack of desire, differences in sexual needs, and frustration.
  • Family lssues—suggests a range of ideas for interacting with the survivor’s family.
  • Partners’ Stories—explores the struggles, triumphs, and courage of eight partners.

Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (2006) by Christiane Sanderson

This updated and expanded edition provides comprehensive coverage of the theory and practice of counselling survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA). In a reasoned and thoughtful approach, common stereotypes of abusers and their victims are replaced with current knowledge on the incidence of CSA and its long-term impacts on adult survivors. Christiane Sanderson explores the therapeutic relationship from building trust and meeting the client’s needs to establishing boundaries, addressing transference issues and avoiding secondary traumatic stress. She evaluates various treatment approaches and techniques, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of group therapy. Stand-alone chapters provide in-depth coverage of: * CSA’s impact on survivors’ sense of self and their relationships with others * self-harming behaviour, including self-injury, substance abuse and eating disorders * how memory is constructed and reconstructed, including the controversial issues surrounding recovered memories * useful approaches to coping with fear and loss from working with other types of trauma * normal sexual development and typical sexual difficulties for survivors * working with shame and dissociation. Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse honestly addresses the complex issues in this important area of work. It provides practical strategies for those new to counselling in this field and valuable new insights for experienced counsellors.

The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment (2000) by Babette Rothschild

This book illuminates that physiology, shining a bright light on the impact of trauma on the body and the phenomenon of somatic memory. It is now thought that people who have been traumatized hold an implicit memory of traumatic events in their brains and bodies. That memory is often expressed in the symptomatology of posttraumatic stress disorder-nightmares, flashbacks, startle responses, and dissociative behaviors. In essence, the body of the traumatized individual refuses to be ignored. While reducing the chasm between scientific theory and clinical practice and bridging the gap between talk therapy and body therapy, Rothschild presents principles and non-touch techniques for giving the body its due. With an eye to its relevance for clinicians, she consolidates current knowledge about the psychobiology of the stress response both in normally challenging situations and during extreme and prolonged trauma. This gives clinicians from all disciplines a foundation for speculating about the origins of their clients’ symptoms and incorporating regard for the body into their practice. The somatic techniques are chosen with an eye to making trauma therapy safer while increasing mind-body integration. Packed with engaging case studies, The Body Remembers integrates body and mind in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. It will appeal to clinicians, researchers, students, and general readers.

Strong at the Broken Places: Overcoming the Trauma of Childhood Abuse (1991) by Linda Sanford

In this moving and authoritative work which combines dedicated research and interviews with victims of childhood abuse and neglect, psychotherapist Linda Sanford passionately refutes the received wisdom that such people are trapped in a vicious circle of abuse and will probably become perpetrators of violence themselves.

In more than seventeen years of working with victims and survivors, she discovered that this simplistic formula is far from true. Most survivors, in her experience, break free from the patterns of victimisation and abuse and go on to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. And the more than twenty interviewed in depth by Sanford provide vivid proof that full recovery is possible. As they discuss key issues, such as self-image, intimacy, work and spirituality, we come to see what enables them, and countless others like them, to triumph over trauma and become not only strong, but often strongest where they’ve been most injured- strong at the broken places.

Victims No Longer: The Classic Guide for Men Recovering from Sexual Child Abuse (2014) by Mike Lew

VICTIMS NO LONGER was the first book written specifically for non-offending adult male survivors of incest and other sexual child abuse, rape, physical violence, emotional abuse, abandonment and neglect. It offers hope and encouragement to these courageous men and those who love them – partners, family, and friends – as they heal from their traumas of boyhood, adolescence, and manhood. This book has remained in print for over 25 years. Updated, revised, and translated, its messages resonate with survivors and allies across cultural, linguistic, racial, religious and geographical boundaries. The ebook version will provide an additional resource to survivors, therapists, counselors, and allies throughout the world.

VICTIMS NO LONGER is a gentle guide, a resource for healing, learning, and thriving, helping survivors to: break through isolation, shame, fear, and grief; achieve understanding of the long-term effects of sexual abuse; and take power over their lives, relationships, work, emotions, and sexuality. It enables the reader to begin working through issues of trust, intimacy, sexual confusion, loss, power, control, and connection – making life choices that aren’t determined by the abuse. Topics include masculinity, emotions, sexuality, homophobia, shame, guilt, survival strategies, perfectionism, individual and group therapy, confrontation, forgiveness, and moving on.

Universal, yet deeply personal, VICTIMS NO LONGER offers a sense of belonging, understanding, and liberation for men at all stages of recovery. This classic work has been called “life-saving,” “compassionate,” “comprehensive,” “clear,” “moving,” “a beacon of hope,” “definitive,” “warm,” “a salvation,” “comforting,” “challenging,” “required reading,” and “loving.” VICTIMS NO LONGER continues to speak clearly and powerfully to the pain, fears, needs, hopes, and dreams of male survivors and the people who care about them as they navigate their odyssey of recovery.

Video Clips

Dr Nina Burrowes is a chartered psychologist and researcher based in London. Her job is to help people understand people. She specialises in rape and sexual assault and has carried out research with offenders, victims, prosecutors, and the public.

Consent: If you’re still struggling with consent, just imagine instead of initiating sex you’re making them a cup of tea. Animation courtesy of Emmeline May at rockstardinosaurpirateprincess.com and Blue Seat Studios.