Chapter One: Defining Child Sexual Abuse and the Factors that
Impact Resiliency and Recovery
Chapter Two: The Long-Term Impact of Child Sexual Abuse
Chapter Three: Transcending Adversity and Overcoming Abuse: Risk
Factors, Protective Factors, and Resiliency
Chapter Four: Mothering: Challenges and Risks
Chapter Five: Mothering: Sustaining Resiliency
Chapter Six: The Therapeutic Relationship and Its Importance to
Resiliency and Healing
Chapter Seven: A Legacy of Trauma: Mechanisms for Intergenerational
Abuse
Chapter Eight: Implications for Treatment and Policy: Strengthening
Resiliency
Teresa Gil, PhD, has been a psychotherapist, professor, and trainer for more than 25 years. She has a private practice working with women, children, and families dealing with recovery from child abuse and trauma. She is a full professor and teaches Psychology and has also taught courses in both Social Work and Sociology. Teresa works as a trainer and consultant in human service settings and has developed and facilitated dozens of workshops and clinical trainings on pertinent clinical and therapeutic issues.
Fortunately, as Gil discusses, a strong mother-daughter
relationship, spiritual beliefs, and therapy can help prevent
problems. There’s a good index and a bibliography, which notes
multiple studies. Expect comfort.
*Booklist*
In Women Who Were Sexually Abused as Children: Mothering,
Resilience, and Protecting the Next Generation, Teresa Gil
pulls the curtain back on the transgenerational consequences of
childhood sexual abuse. In this powerful book we hear the
voices of brave women as they attempt to break free from their
entanglement in cycles of despair and dysfunction. As a
skilled and compassionate therapist, Gil provides clinical insights
into strategies to witness, support, and treat the broad array of
consequences of childhood sexual abuse. Reading this book
provides insights into the heroic attempts of these women to be
good parents and break the incapacitating feelings of shame and
hopelessness that had served as an insurmountable barrier in their
desire to connect and co-regulate with their children and to trust
other adults in their lives.
*Stephen W. Porges, Distinguished University Scientist, Kinsey
Institute, Indiana University*
This topic has needed a book for years! Thankfully, Teresa Gil
noticed and has filled the gap. It is a book that will be of use to
survivor/mothers and their families and supporters, including their
therapists. Adult survivors of incest/child sexual abuse who
become mothers often lack role models due to the deficits in their
own upbringing and the pervasive shame and sense of inadequacy that
can result from such a history. Survivor/mothers often doubt their
capabilities to adequately love their own children and are instead
fearful of hurting them or of being unable to protect them. Gil
thoroughly outlines the many issues at play that help in
breaking the cycle of abuse and protecting the next generation.
*Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, Co-Author, “Treating Complex
Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-based Approach” and Author,
“Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy”*
In this deeply compassionate, timely, and immensely practical text,
Teresa Gil explores adulthood experiences of mothering by women
sexually abused as children, drawing on interviews, clinical
experiences and research to document vulnerabilities.
More importantly, she identifies resiliency resources
and ways to nurture these within and outside clinical settings,
permitting women to care for themselves and their children in
transformative ways. Informative for clinicians and
accessible for the public, Gil’s book should be read widely as a
guide for recognizing the harms of this too common adversity,
appreciating the healing power of our enduring capacity to love,
and acting on policies for prevention.
*Ester R. Shapiro, associate professor, psychology department,
University of Massachusetts, Boston*
I am pleased to recommend this new book, Women with Histories
of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Mothering, Resiliency, and Protecting
the Next Generation, to both practitioners and the many women
I have worked with as a lactation consultant who want to change the
legacy of their childhoods and move forward in a positive way.
Theresa Gil has written a lovely book that addresses the reality
these women face but does so in a way that empowers them. So many
books on this topic describe the negative effects of child sexual
abuse, and they are many. This book does that but also offers women
a way out.
*Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, IBCLC, FAPA; editor-in-chief
"Psychological Trauma;" author, "Depression in New Mothers, 3rd
Edition"*
I’ve been wanting to read this book for my entire career: now it is
finally available. I recommend it for mothers, but also therapists,
healthcare workers, people who work in social service systems that
serve families, and families of those who have survived sexual
abuse as children. It radiates hope.
*Leslie Ann Costello, PhD, founder, WomanCare Psychological
Services, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada*
Abuse in childhood, is, sadly, all too common. Of the women I
manage for perinatal mental health problems, as many as 70-80% have
a background that includes emotional abuse or neglect and often
physical and/or sexual abuse. Having a baby stirs these memories
up, and can make the transition to parenthood even more difficult.
Not only are they retraumatised--they don't feel they have the
right role models to help them to do what is perhaps the hardest
task many of us take on. How does one not repeat problems from the
past, what does one need to do to be a "good enough" safe
parent?
Gil overts the very real fears and issues that many of these women
face. While she focuses on sexual abuse, there is material here
that will benefit all women--and men--whose childhoods were ones
where they did not feel safe. Knowing you are not alone, and
understanding what has happened and why it has come up again now,
as a new parent, are critical steps in recovery, and will help
women be the best parent they can be. A sensitive, thoughtful, in
depth look at a problem that all too often gets swept under the
carpet.
*Anne Elizabeth Buist, MBBS,MMed,MD,FRANZCP; professor, Women's
Health Institute, University of Melbourne*
It’s clear from her new book that Teresa Gil is on a very important
mission: How to help mothers who were sexually abused as children
rise above their painful past so that they and their children can
go on to lead meaningful and productive lives. Through her many
years of experience treating mothers who were sexually abused as
children, Teresa has grown keenly aware of their resilience and
courage, and the human capacity to grow stronger in the face of
adversity.
*Mark Katz, author, "Children Who Fail at School but Succeed at
Life" and "On Playing a Poor Hand Well"*
In this era of heightened awareness of sexual abuse against women,
one group of women has up to now received too little attention.
Psychotherapist Teresa Gil redresses this in her important book,
which focuses on women who were sexually abused as children and
then went on to become mothers. After 25 years as a clinical
psychotherapist working with such women, she unravels the veil of
silence and shame that kept them isolated and alone. By
telling their stories, highlighting their struggles, and
examining the factors that support resiliency in them and emotional
health in their children, her book offers hope and practical help
for these women, their family and friends who act as allies, and
professionals in the field who work with this group of mothers and
their children.
*Sally Wendkos Olds, award winning author*
Gil has written a book that breaks the silence endured by many
mothers who are also survivors of sexual abuse, normalizes their
experiences, offers the potential of healing their shame, and
provides a sense of hope for the future.
With heartfelt compassion and clarity, Gil brilliantly combines
theory and practical information for therapists with interviews and
stories that clients can learn from and/or relate to their own life
situations.
*Hope Langner, Director of Coach Training, CTI*
Gil's book is the first to look specifically at the effects of
childhood sexual abuse on mothering. The challenges that
arise at different stages of development, single-parenting,
learning new skills to make mothering easier, developing
support systems - especially when families are not supportive, and
preventing another generation of abused children are all addressed
in this important and timely book.
*Mia Morosoff, LCSW*
In her writing, Teresa Gil unravels the pain and fear of women
victimized by childhood sexual assault. While powerful stories of
trauma serve as the backdrop, it is the process of healing and
breaking the silence of abuse that resonates throughout the book,
highlighting the protective factors that promote resiliency and
serve to stop the cycle of intergenerational abuse. The book
brings to light the struggles and challenges of women striving to
take back their agency, coming to terms with the potential long
lasting implications of abuse. It is an insightful read for
anyone affected by the trauma of assault as well as practitioners’
efforts to support women.
*Todd M. Wysocki, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Hudson Valley
Community College*
For practitioners and survivors, this book brings awareness to the,
often unrecognized, effects that sexual abuse survivors may
experience when mothering. The narratives demonstrate the broad
spectrum of reactions and normalize these experiences for
survivors. However, the book also highlights the mind-body
connections and the ways to foster resiliencies to help women heal.
This is a must-read for every mothering survivor and every
clinician that works with these women.
*Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose, MEd, LMHC, Assistant Professor, Hudson
Valley Community College*
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