Facing the Future: A guide for Parents of Young People who have Sexually Abused

By
Simon Hackett.
Russell House Publishing
£14.95
ISBN 1 898924 94 5

This
guide is well constructed and educational without being didactic. It provides a
clear explanatory schema for the painful questions that confront carers.
Exercises and practical material suggest strategies for coping with the crisis
of discovery, managing difficult feelings, making positive changes and working
with professionals.

The
guide might work best as a source book in conjunction with a comprehensive
treatment programme. To be receptive to its cognitive approach, carers might
need to be at a stage when the shock of discovery has abated and they have
processed some emotions. It best addresses those young abusers for whom the
pathway to abusive behaviour can be established and any abuse they have
suffered has been disclosed. While it recognises that the experience of sexual
victimisation can form a significant pathway, the message is to focus on
management rather than the reasons "why". I felt that this minimises the
fact that abusing behaviour can be a form of disclosure. It is difficult to see
how positive changes can be made in situations that contain this secret. Within
these parameters, carers and professionals will find the guide both hopeful and
practical.

Sue
Richardson is a psychotherapist and co-author of Creative Responses to Child
Sexual Abuse (Jessica Kingsley Publishing, 2001)