UBC Press Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse book Paperback 272 pages

Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse explains how counsellors can facilitate recovery from domestic abuse within a secure, supportive therapeutic relationship.There has been growing awareness in recent years of the impact and consequences of domestic abuse, especially the relationship between domestic abuse and mental health. To appreciate the nature of trauma caused by domestic abuse, professionals need to understand its complex nature and the psychobiological impact of repeated exposure to control and terror. This book examines the therapeutic techniques and specific challenges, such as secondary traumatic stress, faced by professionals when working with survivors of domestic abuse. The author stresses the importance of identifying domestic abuse so that it can be addressed in the therapeutic process to aid recovery, and explores issues such as safety and protection, the long-term effects of abuse and the importance of grieving to the restoration of hope.This book is essential reading for counsellors, therapists, social workers, mental health professionals, health care professionals including GPs and midwives, managers of refuges, legal professionals and all those working with survivors of domestic abuse.

Christiane Sanderson is a lecturer in Psychology at London University, Birkbeck College, and Consultant in the School of Human and Life Sciences, Roehampton University. With 20 years' experience working in child sexual abuse interpersonal abuse and trauma, she has run consultancy and training for parents, teachers, social workers, nurses, therapists, counsellors, and the Metropolitan Police Service. She is author of Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd edition and The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.