Child sexual abuse, particularly incest, is the ultimate taboo. This makes it a secret and silent crime, which is difficult to quantify. The majority of victims know their perpetrators; and where the abuser is a parent or close family member, the child is trapped between the need to seek help and the fear of how this step may impact upon the family.
Child sexual abuse involves pressurising or forcing a child to take part in sexual activities, or encouraging a child to behave in sexually inappropriate ways. Child sexual abuse is not limited to physical sexual activity, and could include non-contact abuse such as exposure and child pornography.
For many, the effects of childhood sexual abuse can last into adulthood, causing significant psychological trauma, physical injury, and a range of mental health and behavioural problems. These may include recurring feelings of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, panic attacks, flash backs, self-harm, and alcohol and substance abuse.
To support women recovering from the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, Quetzal provides a range of services.
These services are available to women aged 16 and over in Leicester City, County and Rutland.
- Long term counselling – All of our counsellors have received specialist training to work on a long-term basis with clients suffering from trauma. Our long-term counselling service consists of low-cost counselling accessible to anyone who has been referred into our service and has had an assessment. Counselling will take place weekly, on the same day and time with the same counsellor for up to a year. You can access this service through different portals such as; Face-to-Face Sessions, Online Video Sessions or Telephone Sessions. As this service is in great demand, you will be placed on a waiting list until your counselling appointment becomes available.
- Crisis counselling – This is short term counselling consisting of 6 sessions. Clients will be given the choice to access this service if we feel that the client is in crisis and will benefit from this service in the interim, whilst waiting for long-term therapy to begin.
- Group Support – This service is a closed group service; the clients participating in this service will start their group therapy journey together and end it together. If clients decide to leave the group, they will not be replaced by other clients, hence securing the essence and the well-being of the group. This group service is run by two of our most experienced counsellors; and they will be working with specific themes each week that are paramount in your recovery from trauma. Each group will consist of eight clients and will run for twelve consecutive weeks, at the same time, on the same day, each week.
- Single Session Therapy – This is a new CBT based service that is offered to clients that feel they will benefit from a one-off 90-minute session with a specialist trained therapist. This consists on a 30 minute preparation phone call so you can determine with the counsellor what you would like to focus on in your 90 minute session, and if there’s anything you need to work on before coming for your session. This is a face-to-face service only.