Freedom at Last: Healing the Shame of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Beverly Engel

Dis 2022 · Rowman & Littlefield · Kuchazwe ngu-Senn Annis

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Childhood sexual abuse (or child sexual abuse/CSA) is not only an assault on the body—it is an assault on the mind and on the spirit. It is an insult to the victim’s integrity, her self-esteem, his very being. Besides imposing a significantly higher risk of conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, suicidality, substance abuse, and learning & educational difficulties, the most devastating consequence of childhood sexual abuse is shame. Freedom at Last will help victims of this form of abuse recover from all aspects of this extreme shame and its damaging after-effects.

Not only does shame from CSA cause a multitude of problems, but this very same shame stands in the way of a victim’s ability to recover and heal. Victims often struggle with shame’s correlation with dissociation, difficulty forming relationships, emotional barriers to disclosing abuse and seeking help, and a lasting negative effect on victim’s sense of self.

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Beverly Engel, LMFT, is an internationally recognized psychotherapist and an acclaimed advocate for victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. She is the author of numerous self-help books, many of which have been bestsellers and has appeared as a guest on Oprah and CNN, among others. Her writing has been featured by Cosmopolitan, Redbook, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and many more. She has been practicing psychotherapy for 35 years.