A 14 year old girl was abused by a family tailor at her home in the presence of all the adults. The tailor touched her private body parts and smiled, no one in the room observed this. This made the girl very angry, sad and confused. She did not inform anybody about it until she went through the Personal Safety Education programme. Following the programme the child revealed this in the individual session and was quite restless. The counsellor assessed her to have low self-esteem, having difficulty trusting others, showing aggressive behaviour and in a state of confusion about her own feelings. During the initial sessions the counsellor learned that the girl had a dysfunctional relationship with her parents as she was physically, verbally and emotionally abused by them. The girl felt unwanted and unloved by her parents.
During the therapy process, enough time was spent in understanding safe and unsafe touches through psycho education and therapeutic activities. Over a period of a few sessions the counsellor developed a good rapport with the girl and the girl trusted the counsellor enough to share her experiences with a 35 year old married father of two children. This man was touching the girl and had also kissed her. Since the girl felt deprived of care, attention and love from her family, she had started liking it when it was provided by this middle aged man and misunderstood it to be love. In therapy the counsellor through psycho education explained to the girl about safe and unsafe touches, Child Sexual Abuse, worked on maintaining boundaries in relationships and also explained about grooming. Through therapy the child learnt assertive skills in expressing discomfort towards people and their actions which she was not comfortable with earlier. She was able to identify her support system and also develop and strengthen it so that in future if she encountered similar experiences she could seek help and take care of herself. Through relaxation and other techniques she could work on her feelings of fear. In the process the girl herself informed her trusted adult and received help. The child has been able to come out of the situation and has coped with her emotional issues as well. The counsellor also had sessions with the girl’s trusted adult and helped her create a safety net for the child.
