Developing Gender and Culture Sensitive Conversations with Sexually Abused Men by Blending Ethnography and Psychotherapy

• Child sexual abuse can have long-term impact on the survivors’ emotional, physical, and psychological wellbeing. Male survivors of sexual abuse are less likely to disclose and report their experience compared to females because of aspects related to male gender socialisation. Feelings of shame, guilt or confusion about sexual or masculine identity silence sexually abused men. They report difficulties in both seeking and receiving formal support services tailored to their specific needs. This article presents collaborative work performed by an anthropologist and a psychotherapist during therapy of adult men with a history of sexual abuse. By using certain tools of ethnography in narrative therapy, we developed culture- and gender-sensitive conversations with sexually abused male clients from diverse backgrounds. A case study is provided to demonstrate how we worked with the various stages and practices of ethnography and narrative therapy, focusing on how sexually abused men were invited to unpack the discourses of masculinity that influenced their ways of understanding themselves and their traumatic past. The article offers an example of how anthropological knowledge and methods can be applied in contexts of clinical social work and demonstrates the way that postmodernist and constructive therapies combined with the tools of ethnography can generate constructive conversations about gender for sexually abused men

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

child sexual abuse

masculinities

psychotherapy

narrative therapy

ethnography

applied anthropology

Health and society

Hälsa och samhälle

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)