The “Alienated” Partner: Responses to Traditional Therapies for Adult Sex Abuse Survivors

Childhood sexual abuse affects both survivors and partners; however, the common therapy modalities for survivors (individual and individual group therapy exclude their partners. In‐depth interviews with the husbands of survivors were used to examine partner issues around the survivor's therapy. Several thems, both positive and negative, emerged from the qualitative analysis of the in‐depth interviews. The authors suggest that therapists should consider integration conjoint couple therapy as an adjunct to, not a replacement for the traditional modalities of individual and individual group therapy for adult survivors.