‘Seeing it Everywhere’ or Oblivious to It. Clinical Child Psychology and Child Sexual Abuse in the Family
摘要
‘“Seeing it everywhere” or oblivious to it’ explores how, since the 1980s, mental health services for children and young people have been both heavily involved in responding to child sexual abuse and, at the same time, oblivious to it. The chapter examines this paradox through the experiences of six individuals who trained as clinical psychologists between the 1970s and the 2010s. Clinical child psychology was a nascent profession, operating in an environment where structures of service delivery were shifting, relations between the disciplines were fractious, and clinical approaches were seen as mutually exclusive. There was no specific child protection training, and the ‘scientist-practitioner’ model did not encourage attention to child sexual abuse. Some practitioners did develop a special interest and focused on awareness-raising, training, and developing multiagency services but this was short lived due to external factors, including changes to national policy, restructuring of services, and the move to a specific model of evidence-based practice and cognitive behaviour therapy. Ultimately, the profession was reluctant to accept that child sexual abuse was a psychological phenomenon in which they could play an important role. The consequence is a failure to recognise the impact of abuse and complex trauma on children’s psychological wellbeing that can last throughout adult life.