Case Study: Therapy for a Child who Experienced Sexual Abuse by a Family Member (incest)

Abstract

Case study of therapy for a child who experienced sexual abuse by a family member (incest) studied one individual case aiming to find effective solutions within a limited period of time. The data collected had been used to plan treatments to heal and prevent mental health and other potential problems. It emphasized on treatments for both the abused child and the family to continue their lives, as normal as possible, with the problem. Case study was a 10 year-old Thai girl who was sexually abused by her father since she was 6 year old until the present year. She was rescued through o.s.c.c. system of Surin Hospital and was responsible by the multidisciplinary team, in accordance with the system, before admitted to mental health therapy during November, 2015 to February, 2016, under the supervision of Surin Children’s Home. The child attended to the 6 treatments before receiving the family therapy. According to clinical psychodiagnostic assessment, it was found that the child’s personality type was extravert with these personality signs: the signs of weak ego strength, low self-esteem, and fantasy-prone; the signs of inability to experience joy in anything from the surrounding environment, the signs of weak self-control and likely to have low self-restraint if being aroused. There were no psychotic and organic signs. However, the signs of depression and anxiety were found. The range of intelligence level was the bright-normal, though with the three types of learning disability. Her answer conveyed sexual symbolic, but not with pathological conditions. According to the observation, it indicated that the girl had excessive sexual interest for her age. She was talkative with aimless and random topics, liked to ask all sorts of questions all the time. As for physical symptoms, she had stomach ache and insomnia. She felt guilty and worried about the disapproval of family members, especially the grandmother, to her expose of the incident. The child felt that her father should not had done this to her, and this was not right; yet she loved her father and felt pity on him. She did not want to leave for a new place because she cared about her mother. The result from the six treatments and the family therapy as the seventh treatment, the child could adjust herself to the occurred incident, the physical symptoms were gone. She could get along with other kids in the children’s home, was able to be responsible to assigned tasks, and ready to move to the sexual abuse recovery center for children in accordance with the resolution of the child protection committee.
The therapy for a child who was sexually abused by a family member (incest) should include more aspects to provide helps and it was more complicated than the problem concerning abused children in general. The thorough diagnosis by clinical psychodiagnostic assessment would be very useful to understand the holistic and deep problem of an abused child. It allows the prompt and accurate treatment plan. All abused children should receive psychotherapy together with family therapy; this would be a mean to cover all aspects to prevent potential problems in the future including development, personality, and mental health.