Foreward from Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Stephen Gilligan

Experiencing my daughter Zoe grow into a person has been the most exraordinary blessing of my life. Among other things, it seems a microcosm for the contradictions and delicate balance of all aspects of life. She is alternatingly - and often simultaneously! - vulnerable and strong, independent and dependent, confident and uncertain, distinct yet universal. Her wisdom seems beyond her years, but her knowledge and skill base develops only as a result of attentiveness and time. The seeds of her beauty and strength require much water, shade, and warmth. We are often reminded of the African proverb that it takes an entire village to raise a child.

In this process of growth and development, tradegy and loss cannot be avoided. People die, traumas strike, trusts are betrayed, and suffering is experienced. No matter how safe we try to make life, no one escapes its pains and unfairnesses. Of course, what we can and must do is provide a space in which such experiences can be acknowledged, processed, and integrated.

In this regard, childhood sexual abuse can be seen as damaging on three levels. First, it is a horrible experience or set of experiences that should not have happened, but did. The community is responsible for protecting each of its memebers from violation, and it fails in the case of sexual abuse. Second, an act of sexual abuse carves a curse into the vulnerable organic weave of the victim's mind, body, and soul. The ideas of "you're worthless," "you deserve this," "your body shold be violated" are emblazoned into the core identity of the person, forming the basis for self-denigrating thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And third, attempts to communicate (and hence, integrate) the trauma are often blocked with denial, threat, minimization, or more abuse. In short, the experience of the trauma stays locked in the person's neuromuscular consciousness, unable to move from a present experience to a complete memory.

Thus, when we encounter adults struggling with memories of childhood sexual abuse, we see traumatic experiences and events still trying to complete themselves. The experiences are not in the past; they are still in the present reality of the person. When active, they are accompanied by "breaks" in senses of beingness, belongingness, and relatedness. Without such connections, life is an unbearably lonely and frightening experience.

From this perspective, our task as healers and therapists is to provide some opportunities for the relational connections to be reestablished, both to acknowledge and deal with what happened, as well as to open attention to the possibilities of life beyond the trauma. ........ but very few who have offered ideas about how group work might be helpful in this regard.

This book by Judy Chew is therefore a very timely and important contribution to the field. Dr. Chew writes in an exceptionally lucid and helpful way, describing the means and rationale for a group therapy. One of her strongest emphases is that a person is more than just an "abuse survivor"; in fact, other identities may be more developed and more important. Thus good therapy respects and connects with the nonabused parts of the person as well as with traumatized parts. While reading this book, I was reminded of an anecdote told by Ram Dass. He was sitting around with a good friend and a rabbi, and the rabbi asked Ram Dass how his Jewish upbringing influenced his present spiritual identity. The somewhat impish friend replied, "You have to remember that Ram Dass is only Jewish on his parents' side!" Similarly, Judy Chew always seems to keep in mind that her clients may have been abused in one area of their lives, but there are always other sides that are crucial to living "beyond survival."

To move beyond survival, one must usually find ways to first move through it. Dr. Chew presents some excellent methods and ideas for how we may help people do just that.


Stephen Gilligan, PhD
Encinitas, CA