Recent Mental Health Blog | Sexual Harassment and Assault Posts

Sexual Assault: The Perpetrator, the Victim and the Representative of Justice

by Beth McHugh

22 May 2010 05:39 PM

In all cases of sexual assault, there is the perpetrator and the victim. In some cases, there is an introduction of a third party: the representative of justice. The latter only comes into the picture when the victim reports the crime, which according to available statistics, is in the minority.

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When Outing Your Father for Child Rape Breaks Up Your Family

by Beth McHugh

Sadly fathers do rape their own children and sometimes they even rape their infant children. They can even rape several daughters over a period of years. Although this is a crime involving a prison sentence, many perpetrators go undisclosed.

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Sexual Assault: Denying Your Anger at the Perpetrator

by Beth McHugh

One would expect that when a person has been sexually assaulted, the victim of the crime would be extremely angry at the perpetrator. But the act of sexual assault has such a profound effect on a person that what one might expect should happen, doesn't necessarily happen that way at all.

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Anger and Sexual Abuse (4)

by Beth McHugh

In Anger and Sexual Abuse (3), we looked at how 35-year-old Jenna had been sexually abused by her stepfather as a child and was now taking out her rage at this injustice on the world at large. She had just lost her job as a lawyer and had come for counseling.

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Anger and Sexual Abuse (3)

by Beth McHugh

So far in this series on the anger associated with sexual abuse, we have covered the areas of guilt and internalized anger. Today we will examine the phenomena of "anger at the world", a behavioral trait that is often exhibited by victims of sexual abuse.

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Anger and Sexual Abuse (2)

by Beth McHugh

In Anger and Sexual Abuse (1) we looked at the role of guilt and anger in keeping victims of sexual abuse caught in a twilight world of unrelenting personal pain and anguish. Today we will focus more on the anger itself.

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Anger and Sexual Abuse (1)

by Beth McHugh

In The Guilt of Sexual Abuse we looked at the issue of guilt and how it is such a common phenomena as to be almost expected after an incident of sexual assault. Today we will look at the anger associated with this insidious crime. Anger and guilt are the flip sides of the coin of sexual abuse.

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Sexual Assault Victims Protecting Others

by Beth McHugh

I read in the weekend paper about a 45-year-old woman who had been repeatedly molested by a minister when she was a small girl. As an adult she reported the matter to the relevant church. It was covered up. Nothing was done about it. Yet this woman hesitated to go to the police.

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The Guilt of Sexual Assault

by Beth McHugh

I don't think I have ever encountered a client with a history of sexual assault who has not had issues with guilt. Whether the assault happened during the adult years or in childhood, the specter of guilt is never far from the surface.

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Coping with Sexual Harassment and Assault (4)

by Beth McHugh

Jane was a victim of date rape. Sian was sexually assaulted by her boss. Both women suffered enormously from their ordeal, but the way in which they dealt with the event differed in one significant way.

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