Sexual Abuse
Sexual assault is a violation of your body and your sense of self and this has a traumatic impact on your life leading to negative self-worth, self-destructive behaviors, poor health outcomes and a variety of mental health conditions. You may develop anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, eating disorders, or in rare cases, dissociative identity disorder.
Sexual assault can damage your psychological well-being in many ways. You may have trouble trusting others and have a disproportionate sense of danger in the world. It’s also common for sexual assault to cause feelings of guilt or shame, which can have a lasting effect on your self-esteem and ability to deal with stress.
You may also have impulse control problems, frequently lashing out in anger or engaging in high-risk activities with no regard for consequences. For example, you may abuse alcohol or other substances or engage in self-harm.
At Life Solutions we offer compassionate and highly customized psychotherapy to help you recover from the psychological effects of sexual assault. Your treatment begins with a detailed assessment to learn more about you, your symptoms, and the event that triggered your feelings and condition. Then, through a series of weekly appointments you and your therapist will explore your memories, thoughts, and emotions and discuss how they’re affecting your behaviors. You learn strategies to acknowledge your thoughts and emotions and control your responses.
Throughout therapy, you learn to implement healthy coping strategies instead of turning to self-destructive behaviors. If you need support to recover from a substance abuse disorder, your therapist can direct you toward resources to help you stop using alcohol or other substances as a coping mechanism while working with you in therapy sessions to resolve the issues stemming from your sexual assault.