Toward sensitive practice: Issues for physical therapists working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Background and Purpose. The high rates of prevalence of childhood sexual ab use in the United Slates anti Canada suggest that physical therapists work, often unknowingly, with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, The pur poses of this qualitative study were to explore the reactions of adult fema le survivors of childhood sexual abuse to physical therapy and to listen to their ideas about how practitioners could be more sensitive to their needs , The dynamics and long-term sequelae of childhood sexual abuse. as current ly understood by mental health researchers and as described by the particip ants, are summarized to provide a contest for the findings of this study. S ubjects and Methods. Twenty-seven female survivors (aged 19-62 years) parti cipated in semistructured interviews ill which they described their reactio ns to physical therapy. Results. Survivors' reactions to physical therapy, termed "long-term sequelae of abuse that detract from feeling safe in physi cal therapy," are reported. Participant-identified suggestions that could c ontribute to the sense of safety are shared, Conclusions and Discussion. Al though the physical therapist cannot change the survivor's history, an appr eciation of issues associated with child sexual abuse theoretically can inc rease clinicians' understanding of survivors' reactions during treatment. W e believe that attention hy the physical therapist to the client's sense of safety throughout treatment can maximize the benefits of the physical ther apy experience for the client who is a survivor.