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Abuse counseling focuses on helping individuals who have experienced various forms of abuse, including emotional, physical, sexual, or psychological abuse. The primary goal of counseling is to provide support, validation, and healing for survivors while helping them develop coping strategies and regain control over their lives.
Sexual assault is any action that pressures or coerces someone into something they don’t want to do or impacts a person’s ability to control their sexual activity or the circumstances in which sexual activity occurs.
Sexual abuse, like other forms of trauma, can be very complicated. Symptoms can range from anxiety and depression to feelings of shame and guilt about their abuse.
This can prevent survivors from accessing the help they need to move on. Many survivors go years before seeking help.
Everyone responds to this form of trauma differently and at different times. Some experience immediate reactions of anxiety, fear, hopelessness and humiliation. Others may forget the abuse – or it’s extent – for years, until it’s triggered as an adult and a memory reappears.
This is your body’s way of telling you that you are ready to cope with these terrible experiences.
The goals of therapy depend on the unique situation of the client. Goals can include
Domestic violence is defined as any incident of threatening behaviour, abuse or violence between people who are or have been in a relationship or between members of a family.
Involves hurting or trying to hurt someone by slapping, choking or punching, using objects as weapons and/or threatening with a knife or gun
Forcing unwanted sexual acts by using threats, intimidation or physical force
Causing fear by intimating, threatening physical harm to self, partner or children, destruction of pets and property, “mind games,” or forcing isolation from friends, family, school, and/or work.
Attempting to make a person financially dependent by maintaining control over financial resources, stealing or withholding money, forcing a partner to work or denying them the right to work
Any pattern of behaviour that serves no purpose besides to harass, annoy or terrorize the victim.
We work with individuals, couples and families. Our therapists provide survivors of domestic abuse with tools and resources to manage or exit a relationship and deal with the consequences of a past relationship.
Luckily, children are resilient and working through the recovery process as early as possible can be vital to recovery.
Involves physical harm and injury to a child due to deliberate physical force or action by a parent or caregiver or excessive physical punishment. It can include hitting, kicking, shaking, burning or any form of physical force.
When a caregiver fails to provide basic needs such as adequate food, sleep, safety, education, clothing or medical treatment. It can also include leaving a child alone or failing to provide adequate supervision.
A pattern of behaviour that attacks a child’s emotional development and sense of self-worth. It can include excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands that place expectations on a child beyond their capacity. It can include constant criticism, teasing, belittling, insulting, rejecting, ignoring or isolating the child.
When a child is used for the sexual gratification of an adult or an older child. It includes sexual intercourse, exposing a child’s private areas, indecent phone calls, fondling for sexual purposes, watching a child undress for sexual pleasure, and allowing/forcing a child to look at or perform in pornographic pictures or videos or engage in prostitution.
Long term, child abuse survivors suffer greater mental health than physical health damage.
Experiencing any form of abuse will deny the child the tools needed to cope with stress and to learn new skills to become resilient, strong and successful. As they get older, survivors of child abuse may show learning difficulties, use drugs or alcohol, try to run away, refuse discipline, or abuse others.
We work with sexual assault survivors of all genders and ages. Sexual abuse counselling isn’t about reliving the trauma of what happened – it’s about reclaiming your sense of self in the aftermath.
Our therapists are trained in evidence-based therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness. Addressing negative thoughts and beliefs, practicing deep breathing and mind/body awareness when experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings associated with sexual abuse can reduce overall impact in the short, medium and long-term.