01 Sep Adolescents Sexual Abuse Program
A sexual abuse history can derail an adolescent from navigating in today’s complex world. A Step Forward is here to help heal the hurt, offering group, individual, and family interventions and/or treatment with therapists who have had extensive trauma training and experience with adolescent survivors of sexual assault. Therapy allows these survivors a comfortable, supportive environment where their experiences, emotional turmoil, and confusion can be addressed and integrated. Through treatment a young survivor can find an enriching path to a life of healthy choices; greater safety, stability, and comfort; and assistance in navigating the violation of trust and hard questions that emerge with respect to the perpetrator, who in many cases is a family member.
Our teen program specializes in helping young people, ages 12–19, who have gotten into legal trouble for engaging in sexually abusive behaviors. It is tailored and paced to each individual teen and matches their level of risk, need, and motivation. Using tools such as risk assessment, individual and/or group therapy, and sometimes family interventions, we help each young person understand and take full responsibility for their behaviors while learning the true nature of consent and applying appropriate boundaries and coping strategies.
The ultimate task is to reduce the risk of continued sexually abusive behavior, but a major focus of our treatment program is the improvement of each teen’s psychological well-being and day-to-day functioning in their educational, social, and family domains. These young people, no longer feeling ashamed or isolated, not only come to more deeply understand the devastation of victimization, but also take away useful tools for managing life’s challenges as they continue to develop and become educated and safe individuals. Following treatment, sexual assault recidivism rates typically fall to normal, the participants graduate with a greater sense of support and community, and some even become victim advocates.
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