Seeding Hope:

Using a solution-focused approach

with a survivor of childhood sexual assault

Sherap Andrea Winn

MEd Counselling Psychology
The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the
University of Toronto

sherap.winn@gmail.com
Correspondence welcome
 Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR WORKING WITH TRAUMA SURVIVORS ............... 2
DISCUSSION OF THERAPEUTIC TOOLS USED ................................................................. 3
CREATING SACRED SPACE FOR SEXUAL ABUSE HEALING WORK ................................................... 3
HIGHLY STRUCTURED SESSION FORMAT....................................................................................... 4
SOLUTION-FOCUSED SEXUAL ABUSE HEALING TEXT .................................................................... 4
SOLUTION-FOCUSED RECOVERY SCALE ...................................................................................... 4
WEEKLY SCALING SHEET ............................................................................................................. 5
HEALING CHANGES TRACKING SHEET .......................................................................................... 6
THE UNFOLDING OF THE JOURNEY .................................................................................. 6
SESSION 1 .................................................................................................................................... 6
SESSION 2 .................................................................................................................................... 8
SESSION 3 .................................................................................................................................. 10
SESSION 4 .................................................................................................................................. 12
SESSION 5 .................................................................................................................................. 15
SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 16
DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. 17
SAFETY ...................................................................................................................................... 17
TREATING THE SURVIVOR WITH RESPECT ................................................................................... 18
PSYCHOEDUCATION AND REFRAMING ........................................................................................ 18
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SOLUTION-FOCUSED APPROACH......................................................... 18
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 19
APPENDIX 1: SESSION OUTLINES ...................................................................................... 20
APPENDIX 2: DOLAN’S SOLUTION-FOCUSED RECOVERY SCALE FOR
SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL ABUSE ......................................................................................... 23
APPENDIX 3: SOLUTION-FOCUSED WEEKLY SCALE WORKSHEET ...................... 24
APPENDIX 4: HEALING CHANGES TRACKING SHEET................................................ 25
APPENDIX 5: THE MEDICINE BUNDLE ............................................................................ 26
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 27
Introduction

This paper draws from my experience of doing a set of five sessions of solution-focused
(SF) counselling with, Alice1, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and assault. This past year I
did a counselling psychology practicum at a massage school giving counselling to massage
school students. Their program involves having their bodies massaged by classmates which can
bring up body memories of past abuse. Alice is a student at the massage school, and when she
started receiving massages from her male colleagues, she began experiencing flashbacks from
an experience of having been gang raped when she was fifteen. She requested counselling with
me to deal with anxiety attacks, and we worked together for several months.
As my practicum was coming to an end, I suggested we do a set of five SF counseling
sessions to specifically address a recently identified goal: to become more comfortable with
men, specifically as related to the effects of having been gang raped. I added that I would like
to share what I learned from these five sessions with the SFBTA conference in November 2008.
Alice excitedly accepted my offer and was happy for me to share the results from our work in
the hope that other therapists could be empowered to do more to help sexual abuse survivors.
Alice is a young black lesbian woman in her early twenties. Alice gains strength and
inspiration from her sexual identity and being part of the queer community. Two further
important relationship resources are with her partner and her dog. Her mother is middle-
lower-class and of Scottish and English descent; her father is wealthy and of Jamaican Black and
Jamaican Chinese. Alice grew up in Scarborough, Ontario and was sexually and emotionally
abused within her family. Although Alice limits her contact with her mother, her mother
continues to try to emotionally abused her. She has a peace bond against her father, which she
renews each year, and therefore has no contact with him. Alice was gang-raped by a group of
young black men when she was fifteen, and the rape was videotaped.
Several things came up in Alice’s life at the time we had agreed to start this work, and
she had to cancel two appointment times before we were able to meet for the first session. This
initial difficulty may reflect the depth of the work we were about to do and fears about doing
that work. However, she was committed to doing her healing, and through persistence on both
our parts, we were finally able to begin the work. We agreed to have a two-week follow up
appointment after finishing the five-week intensive to ensure she had settled the intensive work
and was successfully moving forward in her life following the intensive. During the course of
the 5-week intensive we discussed and agreed to Alice coming to see me privately following the
2-week follow up appointment. I continue to see Alice now in my private practice, and she is
working on further issues related to the sexual abuse.

1My client chose the pseudonym, “Alice,” because she relates with the character in Alice in Wonderland.
She feels she is off in her own world, all alone on her journey, and she finds strange characters that help
her in her journey. She affirmed that I, as her counsellor, am one of those strange characters.

1
General information for working with trauma survivors

Relational trauma, especially childhood sexual abuse and assault, fragment the victim’s
experience of both themselves and their world. Since this experience attacks the core of a
person, rebuilding that sense of core takes a great deal of therapeutic skill, respect and patience.
Judith Herman (1992), author of Trauma and Recovery, offers an excellent framework for
understanding the impacts of relational trauma. She names the core experiences of trauma as
helplessness and isolation, and she writes about how trauma reopens previously resolved
developmental conflicts, forcing the survivor to relive earlier struggles around having a strong
sense of self and ability to connect emotionally in healthy ways with others. By definition, in
relational trauma the perpetrator forces his or her will upon the survivor, and the survivor is
forced to separate from her sense of herself, knowing who she is, what she believes, what is
important to her, and what she wants so that she can survive the assault. This can have a
devastating impact on the survivor’s connection with herself, particularly if the abuse is
continued over time, and even more so if the abuse happens during the years of childhood
emotional development.
Herman (1992) vividly describes an ensuing dynamic that can trap a survivor, which
Herman calls the “dialectic of trauma”:

Trauma impels people both to withdraw from close relationships and to seek
them desperately. The profound disruption in basic trust, the common feelings of
shame, guilt, and inferiority, and the need to avoid reminders of the trauma that
might be found in social life, all foster withdrawal from close relationships. But
the terror of the traumatic event intensifies the need for protective attachments.
The traumatized person therefore frequently alternates between isolation and
anxious clinging to others. (p. 56)

The survivor is caught between (1) putting up strong defenses against feeling the pain and fear
of the trauma by isolating herself, and (2) needing to be soothed through the safety and comfort
of human connection. Herman (1992) continues:

The dialectic of trauma operates not only in the survivor’s inner life but also in
her close relationships. It results in the formation of intense, unstable
relationships that fluctuate between extremes. (p. 56)

The trauma disrupts the survivor’s confidence and trust in herself and other people and brings
a desperate quality to both areas of her connection. This combination of intense need and
intense fear makes it very difficult to form healthy attachments; this can help us to understand
why it can be challenging to form a strong therapeutic alliance with a trauma survivor.
Herman (1992) names three stages for recovery: safety, remembrance and mourning,
and reconnection. In my brief work with Alice, I focused on the first stage: safety. Establishing
safety includes: ensuring a safe environment; establishing self-care, which is almost always
severely disrupted in trauma; and securing a therapeutic alliance. Trauma deeply impacts the

2
survivor’s ability to relate, and rebuilding that capability requires the development of relational
faculties within secure relationships. A strong therapeutic alliance can be the turning point in a
survivor’s healing if we can create an empowering space for the survivor to reconnect with her
sense of self and develop trust in her ability to relate with others. Solution-focused therapy is
particularly useful for creating an empowering environment in which the client can develop a
sense of optimism and hope to fuel the challenging work of healing from trauma.

Discussion of therapeutic tools used

Creating sacred space for sexual abuse healing work

Some time ago I attended a workshop given by Jann Derrick (2005), an Aboriginal
psychologist. She began the workshop by requesting the spiritual guides of all the workshop
participants to be present and help us in our work that day. Although she did not explain what
she meant by spiritual guides, I understood her to mean unseen, wise energetic beings who are
near each of us and ready to help when called upon. I was struck by the difference in the quality
of my experience and connection with the people within the workshop, and I believed it was
related to the workshop leader setting a sacred container for our work through calling our
spiritual guides. Recognizing that trauma healing is demanding and daunting, I chose to draw
on this resource for strength and support to create space for genuine and engaged connection
with my client.
In meetings prior to this five-session intensive I had asked Alice how she had managed
to be so functional and successful given the profound trauma she had been through. She
answered that this was due to her connection with her spiritual guides. Alice sees her spirit
guides as “souls that passed on a really long time ago, and it’s their job when someone is born to stay
with them throughout their life. They are bigger than your own intuition… if you connect with them
properly… and they’re a safe place.” I asked her what it means to connect with them properly, and
she answered, “Acknowledging their presence and allowing yourself the space to be with them.” Given
the strength of Alice’s spiritual connection with her guides, I felt it was appropriate and useful
to draw on this resource to support this challenging work. We verbally acknowledged their
presence and thus allowed ourselves the space to invite them in to be with us as we did this
challenging and important work.
We created sacred space by beginning each session with a prayer, asking our spiritual
guides to be present and create a container for our communication, empowering each of us to
be present and say what needed to be said. At times, I made special prayers for our guides to
create an atmosphere of compassion for Alice, since compassion is a necessary element of
trauma healing. Cori (2008) states, “Without compassion, we probably can’t let our hurt
surface. Compassion provides the support and tenderness that allows us to feel our hurt.” (p.
220) It is important to consciously build compassionate space for doing this kind of healing so
that the client can open her hurt to the light of healing. I made the prayer at the beginning of the
first three sessions, inviting Alice to add to my prayer. In the last two sessions, we agreed that
Alice would make the session prayer. This was a way of handing over more control of her
healing work and empowering her further in her skills for calling on her spiritual helpers.

3
Highly structured session format
I chose to use a highly structured format for my sessions with Alice (see Appendix 1 for
the session outlines). There were two reasons for this: first, my personal style tends towards
organization and structure, and this helped me feel more secure in approaching the disturbing
nature of sexual abuse; creating the session outlines gave me the chance to visualize the session
beforehand, and the outline provided me a helpful reference point in the midst of the intensity
and/or confusion of some sessions moments, such as when I guided Alice out of a flashback.
Secondly, a flexible yet consistent structure can provide a sense of safety for abuse survivors, by
providing them with the comfort and reference points of a familiar session structure. As
discussed earlier, trauma fragments the survivor’s sense of self and this can be overwhelming
and frightening. Providing a consistent session structure can create an external sense of order
and stability that can be helpful for the survivor to develop their own internal sense of order
and stability.
I walked into each session with an outline and adjusted the course of the session when
needed. For instance, I originally planned to try out many more SF interventions, such as
systemic questions2 and the miracle question3, than I used. It became clear early on that I needed
to slow the pace of the sessions and focus much of our attention on creating safety. Alice
reported in the second session that she had been frightened and disoriented after leaving the
first session, and had asked her partner to stay home from work to be there when she arrived. I
therefore changed the following sessions to build in more pauses to check in with her about
how she was feeling, and I said in the following sessions that we were working on building a
strong sense of safety for her.

Solution-focused sexual abuse healing text

Yvonne Dolan (1991), a leader within the SF community of practitioners has written a
book, Resolving Sexual Abuse, Solution-Focused Therapy and Ericksonian Hypnosis for Adult
Survivors. I relied heavily on this book in initially preparing for this work. The text covers many
aspects of working with abuse survivors and is a good resource for doing long-term SF
therapeutic work with survivors. I found the following parts of the text invaluable for doing
brief work: the Solution-Focused Recovery Scale (1991, p. 32), her suggested approach for
beginning work with a survivor (1991, pp. 24-40), the techniques for creating safety and
bringing the client back to the present from a flashback (1991, pp. 24-40), and the chapter on
therapeutic tasks (1991).

Solution-Focused Recovery Scale

I used Dolan’s (1991) Solution-Focused Recovery Scale for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
(Appendix 2) to document areas of improvement during the five-week intensive. This scale is

2 Systemic constructive questions bring forth the resources of the insights of people close to the survivor,
such as family, friends and other significant others (Dolan 1991).
3 The miracle question was developed by Steve De Shazer at the Milwaukee Brief Family Therapy Center,

and according to Dolan is “particularly useful in empowering very demoralized clients to imagine a
solved version of their seemingly ‘hopeless’ problems.” (1991)

4
designed to provide a context for hope and shift the focus towards healing by getting the client
to look at the areas of their life where they have already recovered. The areas where Alice’s
scores increased were: Sleeps OK; Feels part of the family; Stands up for self; Engages in social
activities outside of home; Initiates lovemaking; Chooses supportive relationships; Able to
initiate conversations with acquaintances and strangers; and Tolerates criticism well. Of these
areas, several were strong themes in our discussions, most notably her feeling more a part of
her family, standing up for herself and confronting men when needed, being much more
confident in engaging socially outside the home, initiating lovemaking, and being able to
converse with men she had just met and enjoy conversing with them. I believe the solution-
focused recovery scale in many respects incited Alice’s healing in these areas – just being asked
the questions about areas of recovery seemed to naturally provoke her healing process in five of
them.
The areas where Alice’s ratings went down were: Able to think/talk about trauma; Able
to look loved ones, friends in the eye; Initiates conversation with family, friends or coworkers. I
am unable to account for why her ratings decreased in these areas, other than to wonder if
through our work she was able to become more grounded and give more accurate answers to
the questions on these areas. For instance, it is surprising that she reported being able to think
and talk about trauma easily in our first session, given that she had done very little healing
work on her trauma. I suspect she coped with the traumatic experience by distancing herself
from thinking about it. It is possible that her slightly lower score on this item in our final session
reflected a more realistic answer to her level of ease with talking and thinking about the trauma
given the healing work she did in our five sessions.

Weekly scaling sheet

Each week I asked Alice to fill in a Solution-Focused Weekly Scale Worksheet (see
Appendix 3) to document her progress. This was adapted from a worksheet in Solution Focused
Group Therapy (Metcalf 1998). It scales the client’s locus of control, with “1” meaning the
problem is in control of the client and “10” meaning the client is in control of the problem. The
chart below summarizes Alice’s scoring over the five weeks. She made a distinct leap after the
second session into feeling more in control of the problem. She went up another point after
week three, and remained steady at
an 8 after week 4, showing Level of control
stabilization of her healing work.
10
The reader will be interested to read
9
the contents of the sessions in the 8
next section to see how Alice was 7
6
able to establish a sense of ground 5
from which to make this leap in her 4
sense of control of the problem of 3
2
her discomfort with men. 1
This scaling worksheet was a
1

5
k

great way to begin each session

ee

ee

ee

ee

ee
W

because it caused Alice to

5
immediately focus on what was getting better, and when she stayed the same, the worksheet
asked how she managed to stay stable. The final question on the worksheet, about what
changes were noticed by significant others, provided important information for discussion in
the session. Alice found it very encouraging to realize that people around her were noticing her
changes – it made the changes seem more real and gave her a further sense of hopefulness.

Healing changes tracking sheet

Dolan suggests asking the survivor to notice healing changes she observes during the
week between sessions. I made this a more concrete task by designing a simple form (See
Appendix 4) for Alice to physically write the changes she noticed. She sometimes forgot to do
this, and when she remembered, it provided excellent material to discuss in session and explore
how she was able to accomplish those changes.

The unfolding of the journey

Session 1
After the initial prayer and signing of consent forms, I suggested to Alice that we have a
“gentle and slow entering into our journey here today… so both of us can feel a sense of ground under
our feet and figure out together how to walk this journey.” This created emotional space for us to take
our time and work collaboratively in discovering what this journey would look like. Alice
identified her goal for the five sessions as: to become more naturally at ease with men.
Following suggestions by Dolan, I asked her to identify pre-treatment changes4, identify
a symbol for the present, and I did a psycho educational piece around common symptoms of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder5 (PTSD). Alice identified two pre-treatment changes:

1. There is a nice guy at work, I try to talk to him as much as I can... trying to incorporate
a positive experience with men to outweigh the past negative experiences. I’m reaching
out a bit more, my mind is more open.
2. I’m coming out of my shyness a little bit. When you see me in a public space, and usually
when there’s men around I don’t speak at all. I don’t want them to look at me for any
reason… looking at me or walking past me. Now I can walk up to a female friend that is
talking with a couple of guys, before I would have run away. I can’t look at [the men]… I
ignore them instead of running away.

4 A pre-treatment change is any improvement the client has noticed between scheduling the first
appointment and arriving for that appointment (Dolan 1991).
5 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: “A psychological disorder affecting individuals who have experienced

or witnessed profoundly traumatic events, such as torture, murder, rape, or wartime combat,
characterized by recurrent flashbacks of the traumatic event, nightmares, irritability, anxiety, fatigue,
forgetfulness, and social withdrawal.” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2007)

6
Trauma survivors typically limit exposure to experiences that remind them of the original
trauma to control the chance of being overwhelmed. Both of Alice’s changes indicate a sense of
openness and courage to extend beyond her previous limits. Her first pre-treatment change
shows her actively seeking out positive experiences with a man, a softening of her need to
control her exposure to men and possible re-traumatization through contact with men. The
second change is important because her new found ability to approach a female friend standing
with men allows her to connect with healing resources, even if they are in the presence of men.
It is important to ask the client to identify a “symbol for the present” so she can use it to bring
herself back to the present if she becomes dissociated. This gives both the client and the
therapist a sense of safety and control when the client becomes lost in a flashback. Lastly, I went
through a list of PTSD symptoms commonly experienced by survivors (Dolan 1991). Alice said
she experienced most of them and she didn’t realize they were symptoms of her trauma – she
just thought she was “crazy”. Hearing this list was a relief to her, and in fact she said it was
almost fun to hear them, likening the experience to receiving a horoscope reading, because the
list so accurately described her experience.
After completing this preliminary work around establishing safety and developing an
understanding of PTSD symptoms, I then led us into what would likely be the scariest part of
our work together: the story of the gang rape. Dolan (1991) emphasizes the importance of
asking the client to share her story of the trauma because trauma is often stuck within a wall of
silence. It is therefore critical to open that wall within therapy. Following Dolan’s (1991)
suggested SF approach, I asked Alice to “Tell me what I need to know so that you know I
understand.” Within this approach she does not need to go unnecessarily into the details, but
rather is able to focus on the aspects of the story that are important to my understanding what
she has been through.
Alice stared sobbing and said, “I hate them so much.” I observed her being trapped in a
sad and terrifying place so I stopped her and we did a grounding exercise to help her feel
present in her body and steadier. I then repeated the question, and she was able to tell me the
story of the gang rape. In the future, I will routinely ground my client before asking her to relate
the story of her trauma. After she concluded, I invited her to take a moment to reorient in the
room by looking around the room and naming the things she saw. Dolan suggests using this
technique to balance the left (verbal) and right (visual) sides of the brain and thus support the
client reconnecting with the present. I suggested to Alice she could keep this as a tool to use
whenever she feels dissociated.
I marked the end of this part of the session by saying,

Thank you for, in such a present way, going through the details of this experience you had when
you were 15. It is remarkable to me that you can talk about it in such a straightforward way and
still be in touch with the emotion. That’s a real sign of how strong you are to be able to tell that
story in the way that you told it today. What a horrifying experience for a child to go through…
it pains me to know this… I’m very saddened to even imagine how this impacted you in trying to
develop who you were, and growing up in all the time after that and how it impacted in feeling
who you are and encountering men in your life… it would have to have a very deep impact. I’ve
heard a lot of depth of the trauma in your story. I want to hold that in a place of honour.

7
It is important to find ways to adequately express understanding and empathy in the face of
deeply traumatizing experiences. I complimented her strength; I suspect she felt badly after re-
experiencing the trauma through telling her story, and I gave her an opportunity to feel good
about herself through recognizing her strength in that telling. I also communicated my
understanding of the impact of this experience on her and her developmental process. Lastly,
introducing a place of honour within which to hold the story is a sacred or spiritual way of
expressing respect and inspiring a sense of dignity and care, which is the opposite of the
trauma; it is a way of overcoming the demoralizing effect of the trauma.
To end the session on a positive note, I asked her to answer the questions on Dolan’s
Solution-Focused Recovery Scale for Survivors of Sexual Abuse (Appendix 2). This scale asks
the survivor to report areas where she has likely already done healing and tends to provide
hope.

Session 2
In this session, Alice reported she had been talking with her spirit guide in the past week
and getting strength from that spiritual connection. She also reported having a flashback when
watching TV, triggering her into a past experience of terror and disconnection. She used the
method of looking around the room and naming what she saw to successfully bring herself out
of the flashback. Alice was already beginning to incorporate tools she was learning in session in
her life outside the therapy room.
I asked her to fill in a Solution-Focused Weekly Scale Worksheet (see Appendix 3). She
remained at a 4 on the scale, which means she still felt the problem was controlling her. Alice
apologized for not moving up on the scale; I assured her that was fine. Metcalf’s worksheet is
helpful because it asks how the client managed to stay the same, affirming the positive nature of
maintaining. By the time Alice came to the bottom of the worksheet, she was able to identify a
positive change noticed by her partner: “[her partner] said I looked confident… she usually says I
look like a mouse… it was really interesting.” I questioned her, “What have you been doing differently
that caused her to say that?” She responded that she had been exercising and eating better, and
that made her feel better about herself. Work around body image and relationship to body is an
important aspect of sexual abuse healing. She also said her confidence was boosted because she
had been getting more sex. An improvement in sex can be particularly important to explore in
sexual abuse healing. Alice said she initiated sex more in the past week (likely inspired by the
question on Dolan’s recovery scale). This is how our dialog went:

A: Usually I just try to make her notice me and it never works.

S: You were doing something differently this week…
A: Yes, instead of just flirting, I stepped it up to making out … and I don’t know why I don’t
come on to her more often… I mean it’s great… I just get so shy and embarrassed.
S: Again, this theme of more confidence… acting on what you want… instead of trying to entice
your partner, you were more direct and acted on what you wanted.
A: Yeah, and it seems to be working, yes! Man, I’m so happy!

8
 Following a suggestion in Dolan’s book, I asked Alice, “What will be the first smallest sign
that things are getting better, the sexual assault is having less of an impact on your life?” She
responded when she had a flashback once a month instead of once a day, “or at least have the
tools to bring me back into reality while they are happening.” I felt her second sign provided an
opportunity to do more concrete work. In order to explore what resources she already had to
deal with flashbacks, I asked her to share a story of a time when she successfully brought
herself back from a flashback. She described a situation where a man approached her on a train
and said lude comments to her, sending her into a flashback. She looked up and happened to
see an advertisement for her massage school on the train, and it reminded her of her strength,
her current life, and a sense of her future. Based on the usefulness of that physical reminder of
her present life, I shared with her one of Dolan’s therapeutic tasks, the medicine bundle, a way
to gather reminders of the present in a physical bundle that the survivor can take with her out
into the world (see Appendix 5). I asked her if she would like to make a bundle in the coming
week as homework, and she agreed.
I then asked, “What will you be doing differently when this sexual assault trauma is less of a
current problem in your life? What can you imagine you will be doing differently?”

A: Taking over the world.

S: What might that look like?
A: For me its’ very small … standing up for myself, not being afraid to be in a confrontation,
because that I’m really scared about. Showing in my confidence and the way that I interact with
people.
S: Wow!
A: I have a big personality in here but don’t show it sometimes because of self-esteem or
something.
S: You can imagine that when this is not impacting you so much, having the confidence to
address when in conflict with someone. This is a wonderful vision that you can see when this is
not impacting you so much… and you are already seeing signs of this change happening… it’s
not even just you, it’s someone outside of you that is seeing this change happening in you
[reference to her partner remarking on her confidence in the past week].
A: I know. It’s amazing!

This dialog shows Alice’s growing sense of hope through acknowledging she has a “big
personality” inside (a strength) and her excitement in seeing that she is already changing and
healing. In the weeks to follow Alice would have many stories of learning how to confront men.
At the end of our session, Alice suddenly remembered that she had felt very shaken up
after she left our first session. In response to this I asked her a scaling question about how ready
she felt to go out on the street. She was at an “8”. By asking her about what was bringing her all
the way up to and 8, and then asking what would take her up an extra half point, she was able
to connect with sources of joy and strength and we ended the session with her feeling she was
at a “9”.

9
Session 3
I checked in with Alice early in the session to see if there was anything lingering from
the last session, as a way of addressing the problem around safety she encountered after leaving
the first session. She said no, that after the second session, “I felt I was going to take over the
world.” She left feeling powerful and confident. The solution-focused approach created an
atmosphere of hope which helped her access her ability to heal, and seeing herself heal has
made Alice feel she can accomplish anything she decides to engage.
Alice shared stories of feeling connected with her family in this session. First, she shared
that she told her mother she was in counseling without sharing the issue she was getting
counseling for. In this way she was able to share more of herself with her mother with
discrimination about how much to share, and this helped her feel more in control and
connected with her mother. Second, she brought in two strong symbols for the present
connected with her partner.
After filling in her weekly scale worksheet, she explained how she increased from a “4”
to a “7” on the scale. First she said she went to a gay men’s party and enjoyed spending time
with the men. She noticed feeling more at ease with gay men since she did not fear them
behaving like sexual predators towards her. She shared some of her healing journey around
men with one of the men at the party, and he responded in a positive way that made her feel
stronger. She also reported:

A: My shyness is getting much better. My sister had a birthday party at my mom’s house and I
felt like it was a safe environment to really show my personality. My sister had a bunch of her
male friends over… so she had a bunch of these 20 year olds in the back yard… everywhere! Oh,
dear, who are these new people, I don’t know them, so I just took a deep breath … I ran up to
them and said, “Hi, I’m Aria’s sister, who are you?”
S: Wow!
A: I felt so powerful, I felt really comfortable with that… really awesome… I can force myself to
do stuff sometimes, and usually when I just jump into it like that, it’s a little bit easier than if I sit
there pondering about it.
S: What were you doing differently this past week that enabled you to jump forward and do this?
A: I guess talking to myself, out loud, it’s kind of weird but, talking to myself a lot, encouraging
things. Before I used to say, “Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t be scared, don’t be upset,” right?
Instead I just changed the way that I talk to myself, like you always say approach yourself with
kindness. I just said “There’s no need to be afraid, you’re in a safe space. It’s alright to feel how
I’m feeling,” but still telling myself there’s no need to feel the negative feelings.
S: That’s amazing! What a huge tool that you have discovered. And your insides were so
responsive to it. All you had to do was talk out loud and say these comforting, encouraging
things and something inside of you felt really comforted and encouraged, I mean this is amazing
that you went out among all those boys and went up and introduced yourself to them!
A: I know.
S: I’m thinking back a week or two and you were saying that you found it very difficult to
approach men and talk, you could approach a woman friend… but I’m struck by the magnitude of
this leap of being able to go out into a big group of men and introduce yourself!

10
 A: Yeah, I felt totally different when I was talking to them. I guess because I was at my mom’s
house and I was with my sister I felt safer too, so I felt that was a good time to try and do
something like that. My mom commented that I’ve never done that in front of her before. My
mom doesn’t usually notice.
S: You really tapped into that adult self to do some self talk. I’m very struck by how this adult
part found her voice and used it for so much good for the rest of you this week. I’m wondering if
you have a sense of what it was that you’ve done to empower this adult voice.
A: I don’t know how it happened. I just started saying it to myself one day. It just kind of
happened. I have been talking to my spirit guide in the bubble bath so a lot of times my spirit
guide really helps me. I feel like they’re really… , I’m not going to say really strong, but at the
same time I feel like they are. But they also stand back and wait for me to do things on my own,
and just give me a little bit of a push or holding my hand now and then.
S: That’s very good that you’re doing that.
A: It feels good. It feels stable. (breathing out)

This section of dialog shows the shift that happened this week. Alice developed the ability to
tap into her adult self and do positive self-talk. Although she was frightened about approaching
the yard full of men, she was still able to do it in a mindful, self-empowering way. She talked to
herself out loud in kind and supportive ways. She also felt some familiarity and safety being at
her mother’s house and that her sister was there. It is clear that Alice was growing in her ability
to be aware of resources and to connect with them in order to feel safe enough to take risks.
Alice shared the medicine bundle she prepared, and it contained symbols for her
connection with her partner, her dog, being lesbian, and singing opera. The bundle was highly
individualized, and was in fact a small stuffed bear into which she had tucked various symbols
of strength and positive connection. She began using the medicine bundle during the week:

A: I took it with me to my mom’s house just in case she was going to be a bastard to me. I kept it
so I have something.
S: You were able to find a very powerful adult voice and approach those men. I’m wondering if
part of it was the protection of taking your medicine bundle with you.
A: I think so. I had a lot of safety nets for me to be able to do that. I had my mom, my sister was
there, my dog - I brought him, and then I had [the bundle]. So I was feeling pretty comfortable.
S: That kind of safety is important. It is important to have that for going into the world. We all
need a home base of safety to have courage to do something new. This is very encouraging that
you are tapping in with this. It is very, very important for an abuse survivor.

The medicine bundle served as a connection with her strength and the resources she has in her
current life. Rather than feeling alone and small in the world, the bundle gave her a sense of
safety, enabling her to take the risk of approaching the yard full of men.
To further improve her ability to keep herself safe, I introduced Alice to an Aboriginal
notion of energetic shielding, placing energetic light around the front and back of the torso
(Kunkel 2008). I suggested she could design a shield based on a warrior culture, such as that of
the Zulu or Amazon. The lesbian community identifies strongly with Amazon culture as an

11
example of strong women. I particularly suggested the Amazon culture, given Alice’s positive
connection with being lesbian. She was excited when I asked her if she would like to research
and design a shield for herself in the coming week. She responded:

A: Yeah that sounds like lots of fun. I had so much fun making my medicine bundle.
S: You are engaging your creativity for a very important purpose of supporting your healing
journey and protecting you in ways that you need to be protected.
A: Do you mean like a literal shield?
S: Yes. You can tap in with your own inner wisdom of what would be a good symbol for you…
something you believe in the power to protect you. So if some guy is approaching you in an
inappropriate way, this energy will go [KNOCK sound with tongue] and you have full
confidence that it has the power to do that.
A: That sounds awesome! Oh, man, I’m ready!

I complimented Alice’s strong creativity and encouraged her to access symbols of power
and protection that she believes in. This generated a further sense that she can make changes
and can protect herself from men’s attacks. She had felt at the mercy of men for so many years
that at this point, as she could see the possibility of protecting herself, she was very excited and
“ready” to protect herself. Her belief in her ability was key to making this shift. Later in the
session I reflected the progress she was making:

S: I see that you are really connecting with your healing journey. You are gaining momentum
with your healing journey. Sources of support are coming to you. Your inner resources are
becoming more and more alive. And this is all a sign of the work that you have put into your
healing journey in creating this momentum.
A: It feels so natural for this progress. It feels natural - without effort.

I believe it is important to identify the progress the client is making, and when she makes a leap
and is gaining momentum, it is important to highlight that and compliment her for creating the
changes. Alice’s progress between sessions two and three was remarkable, and it is important
for her to feel good about that in order to further increase her sense of hopefulness and
momentum. Alice responded that her progress felt natural. I believe this is a sign that our work
was tailored to who she was, her strengths and resources, and the pacing that she needed. I
ended the session by attending to her safety and asked her a scaling question on her readiness
to go out on the street, and she answered, “10.”

Session 4
Alice came into our fourth session saying she was “in a strange space.” She appeared
unsettled and agitated. I acknowledged her saying she was in a strange place but did not
explore it quite yet; I wanted to try to stay true to the solution-focused approach and begin with
acknowledging positives before entering into problems. I invited her for the first time to make
our initial prayer. After that she said, “Ah, that feels good,” and she took a deep breath. Even
making the prayer helped Alice access hopefulness and positivity. We did some deep breathing

12
and a grounding exercise together. She moved up another point on her weekly scale of sense of
control of the problem. She attributed this to her being unusually social with people, who were
visiting her home, including a man, and she meditated during the week. When I asked for
further changes, she responded:

A: I’m really feeling better about myself. Really feeling better about myself, the way I look and
stuff. I found that, even though I’m exercising … it’s more for health reasons than aesthetic
reasons, I feel more attractive I guess, even without makeup, and usually for me makeup makes
me feel more attractive.
S: Wow! It sounds like you are getting in touch with feeling beautiful from the inside.
A: yeah. Definitely. Definitely.
S: That is definitely a sign of healing, Alice. A very important sign.
A: I’m so excited. This is the first time that a form of counselling has worked, and I can actually
see it working. And these little changes that have been happening (breathes out) it’s so amazing!
S: They are so important for our walking around the world, it is so important to have that sense
of wholesomeness – of feeling good about who we are. That is so fundamental to being able to feel
good about living. Although you may call these small changes, they are very profound changes,
very important changes and it’s wonderful how you have been opening yourself to your healing
so you can have that sense of wholesomeness of feeling good on the inside, from the inside,
expanding out.

Alice describes feeling better about herself. She is no longer so concerned about how others look
at her or how others judge her appearance. She has shifted her emphasis to her health, as she
sees herself exercising to improve her health. She feels attractive, and doesn’t need to put on
makeup to feel that way. She realizes she can radiate her beauty and health from how she takes
care of herself and how she feels on the inside. Cultivating a sense of wholesomeness is
particularly important for sexual abuse survivors. Sexual abuse often leaves the victim with not
only feeling violated, but also feeling dirty both inside and out. Reclaiming a sense of inner
goodness and wholesomeness is therefore an important part of healing from sexual abuse.
Alice then went on to describe an important healing change around her ability to
confront a man:

We were going out to Kensington Market and my partner had asked the collection officer for a
day pass and he did not speak to her at all. She asked him a question, he didn’t respond. She asked
him how much it was, he didn’t respond. He just didn’t speak, and I just thought that was very
disgusting of him, I thought it was very rude, and she’s not a timid person, so she called him an
asshole, she was very upset with him. And normally that confrontation would have sent me into a
spiral of anxiety and I would have been really upset by it. But I went up to the window [laughs]
and I said, ‘You know, somebody should really have your job for this, asshole!’ [S: really!] And
after, I felt (grrrr…) really strong! He didn’t look at me, didn’t make any eye contact, like we
weren’t even there. He still didn’t respond, which was fine. But the fact that I felt no anxiety
afterward, it was like Oh my god, it was so awesome! I said, ‘This is how I feel, and my feelings
are justified because he’s being an idiot. I shouldn’t feel negative about how I’m feeling, I

13
 shouldn’t feel bad for feeling like this.’ So I just kind of went into it, and I said okay, if I’m going
to feel anxiety after, that’s just going to happen, but I’m not just going to stand here silently and
worry about it.

This was a big change for Alice, to be able to stay in touch with her feelings when a man was
being rude and to give herself permission to confront him. She was even willing to risk feeling
anxious afterwards because she wanted to speak up for herself. As it turns out, the anxious
feelings didn’t come, which was probably an important experience for Alice in learning that she
can say what she wants to say without uncomfortable feelings lingering afterwards.
She then went on to tell a story of a man who came to visit her and she was able to
engage him and tell jokes, and she was even able to enjoy engaging with him. This was new for
her. At one point, her partner and the man’s fiancé left the room, and Alice was left alone in the
room with the man. She panicked at first, but quickly did some self-talk reminding herself that
she was safe, and she looked around the room and named what she saw to herself; this helped
her ground herself and resume her sense of comfort with the man.
Alice shared her chosen shield with me. She did research on the internet and looked at a
large number of Amazon shields. She chose one with a lightening bolt, moon, stars, a lake, and
eagle feathers, all holding symbolic meaning for Alice. Her step-father asked Alice what she
was doing when he saw her doing her research. They started talking, and Alice discovered he
had expert knowledge on Amazon culture. This not only allowed her to have a positive
experience with a male family member, but she also discovered a further resource for relevant
information.
I then returned to what Alice said when she first came into the session, that she felt she
was “in a strange place”. I asked her what that had been about and she shared a frightening
experience she had on her way to this session:

I was walking to the corner store to get change for the bus and there was a man, this was my
second encounter with this man. He drives this black van around my neighborhood. He’s my
dad’s age. Older… I was walking back from the grocery store the other day and he stopped and
told me how beautiful I was. It made me feel like I appreciated the comment because he wasn’t
being disgusting, I think he genuinely meant it, but it made me feel a little weird, a little
uncomfortable. But then on my way to the corner store, he was actually driving on the opposite
side of the street, and he turned into the corner street in order to intercept me. Yeah. I thought
that was a little bit too…, I said thank you the first time, was very polite, I said thank you very
much, and he left. But this time he intercepted me when I was going to the corner store. Got out
of his van… and he was like, excuse me, excuse me, hello, excuse me. I’m the type of person where
if somebody’s going to hurt me, I want to see everything, I want to see what they look like, I got
his license plate and everything, just in case. I didn’t have a feeling that he was going to hurt me,
but I just wanted to make sure that I knew everything. So, I saw him and then he was walking
closer to me and I kind of backed away, and then he said, you know every time I see you, I just
want to tell you how gorgeous you are, blah blah blah, like he really flattered me, and I think I
probably turned red. And I was like, ‘Okay, I’m engaged [to my partner], why are you telling me
this.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know.’ I thought it would make him back away a little bit. He

14
 said, ‘I didn’t know, that’s nice to hear, sorry for bothering you, when I see you again I’ll just say
hi, I’m not going to bother you again.’ Cause he said he wants to get to know me better… So then
I had done some research about the shields you had told me, so I mentally put on my shield, and
then I said, cause I noticed he was kind of checking me out, like doing [running her eyes up and
down. S: So that wasn’t matching his words.]. No. It wasn’t, not at all. And I said, ‘You know
what, have some respect and get back in your van.’ And on the inside I was like [heavy breathing
in and out, over and over] ‘Oh my god! Oh my god!’ But then, I went into the corner store, and
then he went to the corner store, too. I don’t know if he knew I was going to the corner store, but
that was the direction he was travelling in in the first place, so maybe he was going there. He
parked outside the corner store, and when I came out of the corner store, I saw him and I just
looked at him like this [hard glare], Like ‘I really mean it – stay away from me!’ And when I was
picturing the lightening bolt of my shield stinging him, and then I got on the bus. And I felt fine.
And as I was getting here, there was a residual nervousness. Wow! That was an adventure! I
didn’t realize how important it was until I just talked about it now.

Alice shared the story of what happened and was able to reflect on the experience and on the
way she handled it. She stayed present with herself and protected herself, doing everything
from (1) taking note of the man’s license plate to (2) telling him to have respect and leave to (3)
visualizing her lightening bolt zapping him. Her presence and mindfulness of her inner
processes and protection throughout this experience are remarkable, and it is even more
remarkable that she was able to access this new technique of shielding within the midst of being
accosted. Through recounting the story she realized her bravery and strength in facing this
man’s disrespectful advances on her. This solution-focused interchange allowed her to
acknowledge the amazing things she did differently in this situation.

Session 5
Alice came into our final session reporting that she felt sad about our work ending. She
also felt angry because she had wanted to have sex with her partner the night before, but her
partner didn’t want to. Alice had a strong reaction of anger, wanting to “punch the wall and
scratch her.” I honoured the deep nature of her reaction and suggested it likely had to do with
her previous abuse, rather than her current relationship; an extreme reaction like this can often
be connected with unprocessed trauma. Given the more extensive nature of this topic, I
suggested she could work on this piece when she came to see me in my private practice
following the end of my practicum. In general, therapists never want to ignore that something
like this came up, because therapy should provide a container to hold and acknowledge
whatever comes up in a client’s healing journey. When something big like this comes up and we
have other work that needs to be attended to, it can work well to acknowledge the issue and
organize a way to attend to it later; this is an alternative way of holding and attending to what
comes up. Note it is crucial to ensure the issue is followed up with at the agreed upon time. In
this case, that approach worked well, and it gave Alice a greater sense of safety and control for
doing the work we needed to do on our last day; since she knew this issue would be attended to
later, she could let go of it and proceed with closing our work in this final session. I make note

15
of this because sometimes large intense issues can come up in a session, and it can take a great
deal of creativity to find your way to an appropriate way of handling them.
Alice shared more stories of positive changes from the past week, including purposely
walking through a group of five men in an office, and it caused no flashback. In fact, she
excitedly reported she had no flashbacks all week, despite there being “plenty of opportunities”
that could have triggered one. For instance, she went bowling and the bowling alley was “full of
guys,” some of whom she had gone to school with at the time of the gang rape. She was afraid
they were staring at her when she was bowling.

A: I bet myself that no one was looking at me, so I turned around and looked and no one was
looking at me. My inner self knew nobody was looking at me. And I made sure I walked slow so
my bum didn’t move. After my first bowl, I managed to let go of myself. I hung on to my
necklace, and said it doesn’t matter… they didn’t say anything to me, not a word.

Alice challenged herself to check to see if the boys were looking at her. It took courage, and in
this way she empowered herself.
In this session, I asked Alice to tell me what gains and achievements she saw over the
past five weeks.

A: I have tools to help me stay in control of my problem. Things like shielding, my symbols for the
present. Self-confidence. And my support system has grown 10 times, I’ve never really spoken to
my family about… my mom, I’ll never tell her… but I’ve told my sisters and my partner and told
them what I went through, why some of the things.. why I’m the way that I am sometimes… a lot
of times they were a little rough with me because they’re all more aggressive than I am… I told
them the reason I don’t speak up for myself is this, I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me, but to
understand…
S: You are no longer alone!
A: Yeah… I didn’t realize how important it was to tell people, people that I trust and love. And I
had no idea they’d be so supportive.

This is a wonderful summary of tools she learned and has integrated into her daily living, as
well as family connection resources she developed for herself through the course of doing this
intensive solution-focused work. She came to realize how important it is for her to share her
story of trauma with safe people in her life. Her sharing helped her sisters and partner
understand why she sometimes doesn’t speak up for herself, and it gave her family members
the chance to show their support for her. This significantly increased Alice’s resources for
connection.

Summary

Alice began with a pre-treatment change where she was able to approach a female friend
who was with two men to speak with her and wasn’t able to look at the men. She rated her level
of control of the problem of her discomfort with men at “4” on a scale of 1 to 10. By the fifth

16
session, she rated herself at an “8”, putting her well into the half of the scale indicating she felt
in control of the problem. As well, she noted the following improvements:

Her mother told her she noticed she were less shy approaching men

Her partner told her she noticed she was more confident and boisterous with
visitors at their home

She effectively controlled flashbacks as they happened

She was able to have a heterosexual couple over to her home and connect
from the heart and enjoy talking with the man

She confronted a rude male transit worker and said how she felt

She approached a backyard of young black men and introduced herself

She was able to effectively deal with a man in a van who followed her and
was harassing her

The work I did with Alice over five weeks shows it is possible to do trauma healing even in
brief therapy. The strength of our therapeutic alliance provided a basis for doing the intensive
brief work. Nevertheless, it is striking that a survivor can make this much progress in just five
weeks, and I attribute much of this success to the sense of hopefulness the solution-focused
approach engendered.

Discussion

Several themes emerged from this work as important for creating a profound healing
space where Alice was able to make significant changes in her level of comfort with men,
namely: safety, treating the survivor with respect, psycho education and reframing, and the
importance of the solution-focused approach. I briefly address these below.

Safety
Safety is the first stage in Herman’s (1992) three-stage trauma healing model, and it
stood out as the place where Alice and I needed to focus much of our attention. Alice and I
needed to create enough safety for her around experiencing flashbacks so that she could begin
to take risks in engaging men, including confronting men when they were crossing her
boundaries.
Notable ways in which we created safety in our work included: we agreed to have a
follow up session two weeks after completing the intensive work to settle anything still stirred
up from the intensive work; we set a sacred container at the beginning of each session; I
adjusted the session format after her experience following the first session by (1) checking in
with her at the beginning of each following session to see if there was anything lingering from
the previous session, and (2) taking pauses periodically during the session to breathe and
ground ourselves; she built a tool kit for dealing with flashbacks, including the technique of
looking around a room and naming things; she engaged her creativity in creating safety tools
such as her medicine bundle and Amazon shield; and lastly, I suspect our decision to continue

17
our therapeutic work after I left my practicum gave her a sense of relief and safety given the
positive therapeutic connection we have developed.

Treating the survivor with respect

Respecting the client is essential in doing therapeutic work with a survivor of abuse,
particularly childhood abuse. Relational trauma involves someone forcing a victim to do
something. It is important that we in no way re-create the dynamic of the abuse in therapy and
always affirm the client’s wisdom and ability to choose what she will do. One way I did this
was by offering rather than assigning Alice homework in our sessions, asking her if she would
be interested in doing the task. Another way I showed respect for Alice was through
complimenting her on her creativity, courage and strength in working with herself and her
healing over the five weeks of this work.

Psycho education and reframing

Much of my work throughout the five sessions, and especially in the early sessions, was
to reframe stories she shared. For instance, during the psycho educational piece in our first
session she shared a recent story of a man who stopped to open a door for her and looked at her
in a “you’re kind of cute” kind of way; I assume this means she felt he looked at her in a way that
said she was sexually attractive. She screamed because he reminded her of one of the men who
had gang raped her. Alice felt sorry for this man, saying “Poor guy!” I reframed it by saying,
“Poor you for having to go through an experience like that. I am so happy that you have come to a time in
your life when you are ready to do this healing so you can feel good in the world.” Alice responded,
“It’s about time!” This intervention expresses a reality check about who truly needs compassion
in this circumstance – Alice; this statement also acknowledges her strength and readiness to
heal, cultivating a sense of excitement and optimism about her doing this current work. Her
response indicates her readiness to do healing.

The importance of the solution-focused approach

In response to the homework I suggested to her in the first week, Alice said, “I really like
this homework. It’s making me see how things are going to change. You kind of doubt that things are ever
going to change because it’s been this way for so long, and seeing these little changes, it’s fantastic!” Her
words speak directly to the importance of the solution-focused approach of noticing and
validating the positive changes that are happening. Moving a sexual abuse survivor into a space
of positivity must be done with patience, care and appropriate pacing. Her score on the control
scale did not change between weeks one and two, and we were able to find other sources of
positive signs to help her slowly build a sense of optimism, an optimism which took seed in the
beginning and gained momentum after the second session.
Alice made a remark about SF counselling in the third session,

Not only is everything we’re doing here helping me, it’s also giving me the tools I need to
face my problems. The exercises that we do, I think they’re amazing, that’s the big
difference between solution-focused type work versus the regular old talk-to-me-about-

18
 your-problems kind of thing, because it doesn’t make me feel like I absolutely have to be
here in order to help myself… I find that a real good thing... That’s what I think is the
most powerful about it.

Alice finds SF counseling empowering and was able to do much of her work outside the
sessions. I gave her tools and ways of shifting her perspective, and she used and enhanced these
tools and approaches, making them her own, between sessions.

Conclusion

Survivors need a greater sense of safety and care to heal from childhood sexual abuse.
This form of abuse is insidious, affecting the victim’s sense of self and ability to relate with
others. Care needs to be put into the therapeutic relationship to foster the survivor’s ability to
build a healthy sense of self and ability to relate. This can have special implications for doing SF
work with survivors; specifically, a great deal of work needs to centre on creating safety in the
therapeutic relationship and empowering the survivor in creating safety in her interactions
outside the therapy room. The work with Alice detailed in this paper shows the effectiveness of
using solution-focused techniques to create safety and help a survivor make important
connections with her strengths and resources.
In my understanding of trauma, we often are overwhelmed when we go through
traumatic experiences, and we lock the experiences away in our psyches and in our bodies in
order to cope. Healing occurs through engaging and acknowledging the traumatic experiences;
through genuine acknowledgement of these experiences, they loosen their grip on us and we
are able to let them go. We often talk about the courage necessary for healing – the courage to
face what we have been through. The solution-focused approach is particularly helpful in
creating a positive, inspiring space that strengthens us to face overwhelming experiences. It is
my sincere hope that this paper will be a source of inspiration for solution-focused practitioners
to find further ways to effectively use our approach with sexual abuse survivors.

19
Appendix 1: Session outlines

SF Meeting #1
1. Call our spiritual guides and create a sacred container for our work.
2. Fill in consent forms
3. Fill in SF Goal and Scaling Worksheet
4. Pretreatment change: improvement in the situation that occurs between scheduling the appointment
and coming to the first session
a. Are you aware of any such changes that you would like to have continue?
5. Identify a symbol for the present (can be a personal item such as purse, picture of partner or other
significant person, ring or other piece of jewelry. Focus on some object in the office that reminds you
of the present)
6. List of some common symptoms experienced by survivors
a. Dissociative responses, sleep disturbances, flashbacks, concentration difficulties, memory
problems, hyper-alertness, irrational guilt, self-destructive behaviours (such as eating
disorders), sexual compulsions, manipulation and personality disorders, sexual dysfunction,
hopelessness and an intensification of symptoms when exposed to experiences that even
symbolically resemble the original trauma
7. Please tell me everything I need to know in order for you to know that I understand.
a. If distressed:
i. Look around the room and tell me what you see here and now
ii. Locate, identify and describe an object in the room
8. Solution-focused Recovery Scale
a. Read aloud, she responds verbally
b. Show her what areas she marked as already existing signs of healing and/or pretreatment
changes
c. What do you think might be the smallest signs of healing that you will notice next?
d. What do you think your partner would say? Your dog?
9. When she identifies a healing change, assign the task of noticing when it happens and to notice any
other signs as they occur.
10. First session formula task: make a written list of those things in your life that you would like to have
continue. Make it as long as you would like.

SF Meeting #2
1. Call our spiritual guides and create a sacred container for our work.
2. Fill in consent forms
3. Fill in SF Goal and Scaling Worksheet
4. Identify a symbol for the present (can be a personal item such as purse, picture of partner or other
significant person, ring or other piece of jewelry. Focus on some object in the office that reminds you
of the present)
5. Check in briefly about healing change tracker
6. Check in briefly about written list of those things in your life that you would like to have continue
7. Constructive Individual Questions
a. What will be the first (smallest) sign that things are getting better, that this sexual assault is
having less of an impact on your current life?
b. What will you be doing differently when this (sexual assault trauma) is less of a current
problem in your life?
8. Give A new healing changes tracker

20
SF Meeting #3 of 5
1. Call our spiritual guides and create a sacred container for our work.
2. Fill in SF Goal and Scaling Worksheet
3. Identify a symbol for the present (can be a personal item such as purse, picture of partner or other
significant person, ring or other piece of jewelry. Focus on some object in the office that reminds you
of the present)
4. What improvements have you noticed in the frequency of flashbacks and in your use of tools to
manage the impact of flashbacks?
5. What else have you noticed that has been getting better since last week? Check in about healing
change tracker
6. Is there anything lingering from the last session?
7. Check in about how this is feeling – the structure of our sessions, anything to shift or fine tune?
8. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
9. Check in about medicine bundle
10. More concrete discussion about armouring
a. Shield torso – front and back
b. Imagine how big the shield is
c. Can be golden light, front and back
d. Can be from a warrior tradition, such as a Zulu shield, or an Amazon warrior
e. Homework for next week is to design a shield
11. At 12:45, Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
12. Begin planning for after this work
a. Could see me, fee $40 through December
b. Students at the Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy $10-15/hour
c. Centre for Psychotherapy, close to SC, $40/hour
13. Give A new healing changes tracker

SF Meeting #4 of 5
1. Ask Alice to create a sacred container for our work.
2. Identify a symbol for the present (can be a personal item such as purse, picture of partner or other
significant person, ring or other piece of jewelry. Focus on some object in the office that reminds you
of the present)
3. Fill in SF Goal and Scaling Worksheet
4. What else have you noticed that has been getting better since last week? Check in about healing
change tracker
5. Is there anything lingering from the last session?
6. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
7. Check in about shield
8. Explore strength of being queer – “empowered by being different” black dog umbrellas
9. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
10. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
11. Next week we will do closure around this piece of work, and look at what closure we want for our
th
Sutherland-Chan work when we meet 2 weeks after next week – July 7 at noon
12. Give Alice closure sheet and a new healing changes tracker

21
SF Meeting #5 of 5
1. Ask Alice to create a sacred container for our work.
2. Identify a symbol for the present (can be a personal item such as purse, picture of partner or other
significant person, ring or other piece of jewelry. Focus on some object in the office that reminds you
of the present)
3. Fill in SF Goal and Scaling Worksheet
4. What else have you noticed that has been getting better since last week? Check in about healing
change tracker
5. Check in about connection with her power this week being Pride week
6. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
7. Closure of this 5-session work
a. Fill in recovery scale again
b. Your stated goal: I would like to become more naturally at ease with men
c. Gains and achievements
d. What I have witnessed
i. Changed from a 4 (more controlled by the problem) to a ____ (you are in control of
the problem)
ii. Pre-treatment change you reported: you were able to approach a female friend who
was with two men to speak with her, weren’t able to look at the men
iii. Now:
1. You approached a backyard of men and introduced yourself
2. You were able to have a heterosexual couple over to your place and connect
from the heart and enjoy talking with the man
3. You were able to say how you felt to the TTC booth man
4. You were able to push away the man in the van, effectively using the power
of your chosen shield
5. You have been effectively controlling flashbacks
6. Your partner is telling she notices you are more confident and boisterous with
visitors at your home
7. Your mother told you she noticed you were less shy approaching men
e. What would you add to this list of improvements over these 5 weeks together?
f. Unfinished business or regrets? - What did you expect to complete or finish that you have
been unable to attend to, for whatever reasons?
g. What’s next? - As you experience this closure, what new doors are opening to you?
h. The paper
iv. I will be working with this material over July and August, and writing a paper
v. Would you like to choose your pseudonym?
vi. Erase tapes by the end of September
i. Ritual - Is there any way in which you would like to mark our ending of this work and our
overall work at Sutherland-Chan through ritual in our follow up meeting in 2 weeks?
8. Pause
a. Breathe for a moment
b. Check in with your body
9. Look at what closure we want for our Sutherland-Chan work when we meet 2 weeks after next week
th
– On July 7 at noon

22
Appendix 2: Dolan’s Solution-Focused Recovery Scale for Survivors of
Sexual Abuse

23
Appendix 3: Solution-Focused Weekly Scale Worksheet

Solution-Focused Weekly Scale Worksheet (Modified from Metcalf 1998)

Name: ______________________________________ Date: _______________________

Problem is in control of me I am in control of problem

__________________________________________________________________________________________

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. Circle your current status on the scale above.

2. Where did you move on the scale from our last meeting? List below how you managed to do
so:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

3. If you stayed at the same level as the last meeting, list how you were able to stay stable:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

4. If you moved down the scale slightly, list below what you did previously to move forward.
What have you done in the past that was successful in a similar situation?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

5. What have the significant others in your life noticed about you since the last meeting? How
did that affect their behaviours toward you (List names)
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

24
Appendix 4: Healing changes tracking sheet

Healing Changes Tracking Sheet

Change Day noticed

25
Appendix 5: The Medicine Bundle

(from Dolan, p. 132)

A meaningful task for adult and adolescent survivors of sexual abuse is to make
and use an Indian “medicine bundle,” derived from the medicine rituals of the
American Indians. The bundle is composed of symbolic articles and perhaps written
words evocative of the client’s healing resources. The bundle can be wrapped in leather
or cloth or other material, and can be tied up and carried around with the client.
If small, it can be worn in a pouch near her heart; if larger, it can perhaps be
carried in a purse or knapsack. The contents are highly individualized; however, they
should evoke feelings of strength, healthy inner convictions, and self-nurturance. For
example, a bundle might contain pictures of supportive loved ones, dried flowers or
herbs from a favorite woods or field associated with peace and safety, a piece of jewelry
or scrap of clothing from strongly supportive others, and something symbolic of
strength such as an eagle feather.
The medicine bundle can be used in individual therapy as an assignment and
later as a resource the client can draw upon during times of stress. It can also be used in
a group setting. Each member can show and describe the contents of her medicine
bundle in a group ceremony.

26
References

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition (2007).
Houghton Mifflin Company.

Cori, J. (2008). Healing from Trauma: A Survivor’s Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms
and Reclaiming Your Life. Da Capo Press.

Derrick, J. (2005). The Box and the Circle. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
University of Toronto.

Dolan, Y. (1991). Resolving Sexual Abuse: Solution-Focused Therapy and Ericksonian

Hypnosis for Adult Survivors. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: BasicBooks.

Kunkel, L. (2008). Practicum supervision. Sutherland-Chan School and Teaching Clinic.

Toronto, Ontario.

Metcalf, L. (1998). Solution Focused Group Therapy. New York: The Free Press.

Winn, S (Interviewer) & Alice (Interviewee) (2008). Solution-Focused Sexual Abuse

Sessions [Session transcript].

27