Transforming Trauma: A Guide to Understanding and Treating Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse [Paperback]

Anna C. Salter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 080395509X | ISBN-13: 978-0803955097 | Publication Date: May 31, 1995 | Edition: 1

Practitioners helping adult survivors of child sexual abuse need to be aware of the thought processes of offenders. The premise of Anna Salter's major book is that those who do not recognize an internalized perpetrator when they hear one will often be frustrated by the tenacity of the survivor's self blame.

Primarily oriented towards treating adult survivors, this invaluable book will also be useful for treating sex offenders. It includes discussion of crucial issues such as: what clinicians who treat survivors need to know about sex offenders; the different ways sadistic and nonsadistic offenders think and the resulting different `footprints' they leave in the heads of survivors; how trauma affects survivors' world-views;

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 1 edition (May 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080395509X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803955097
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for survivors *and* therapists., October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Transforming Trauma: A Guide to Understanding and Treating Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Paperback)

Anna Salter's "Transforming Trauma" is a must-read for survivors, therapists and anyone interested in the field. She starts off with an often overlooked component of the abuser/victim cycle -- getting into the mind and thought pattern of the abuser. It is *essential* to thorougly understand this, for it is only then that the competent therapist can truly help the victim. The abusers are masters of introjecting their sick thought patterns into the victim's mind, and any help at recovery must begin with teasing out that subtle "other voice" -- so subtle, the victim might not even recognize that he/she has heard it ever since the abuse.

Even therapists who have experience in this area would do well to read this book. It goes into some typical pitfalls in which well-meaning therapists-- unwittingly -- fail their clientele. A particularly good section deals with how to help the client move from victim to survivor and beyond -- to thriving person. It is powerful, direct, readable even from a non-clinical point of view.

Some political questions are raised about so-called "false memory" syndrome, statutes of limitations, prison/rehabilitation for perpetrators, and an excellent section regarding apologies from perps--and how they can go wrong.

I can't rate this highly enough. Please, read this book!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Therapists and survivors should read this., September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Transforming Trauma: A Guide to Understanding and Treating Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Paperback)

I'm not a therapist, just a sexual abuse survivor with access to a university library. This book was both comprehensible and original, and most of all, several of its concepts just clicked with me as the best explanations I'd ever heard for some of my own behaviors. Most notably, her discussion of the sadistic vs. the nonsadistic abuser, and the different effects they leave on their victims' psyches, described my situation better than anything else I'd ever read about abuse survivors (and that's nearly everything in the university library). Fascinating and useful.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, but Caution, January 28, 2005

By 

George Pallotta Jr. "ADZAC" (MIDWEST USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transforming Trauma: A Guide to Understanding and Treating Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Hardcover)

I am a physican and mentalhealth professional, and I was found the book to be one of the better books on the subject because, for the first time, brought you into the mind set of the perpetrators AND the victims.

However, the first half of the book, that deals with the perpetrators, was disturbing mainly bc the quotes the various perpetrators. The quote where simply chilling.
I caution anyone reading this book, bc the quote alone could cause vicarious trauma in the reader.