Integrating Group Cognitive Behavioural, Art Psychotherapy for women following childhood sexual abuse

Abstract

Background Despite the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse, and the number of adults referred to secondary mental services with symptoms of mental distress or disorder who report such a history, there is little in the way of specific recommendations for treatment approaches.Aims We wanted to consider the effectiveness of a combined Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Art Psychotherapy (ApT)* group therapy model (GCB-ApT) for women with experience of childhood sexual abuse.Methods GCB-ApT was delivered to seven groups of female survivors of childhood sexual abuse (n = 41) in community mental health team settings, using a standardised model. There were 32 participants who completed the group, and full data is available for 30 participants. Each group was facilitated by two female therapists – a clinical psychologist and an art psychotherapist. The study was registered with the employing Trust (BSMHFT) as a retrospective evaluation of validated clinical outcome measures routinely administered pre – and post-intervention.Results Results showed significant post-intervention improvement in the domains of global distress, depression and self-esteem.Conclusions Results were promising, although numbers were small.Implications for practice/policy/future research Results suggested that group provision using the GCB-ApT model could be a helpful addition to clinical interventions provided for women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Further research is recommended.*Some texts referenced may use ‘art therapy’ rather than ‘art psychotherapy’. The abbreviation ApT is used for either throughout.Plain-language summary We looked at how we could provide specific ways to help those women referred to Psychological Services who had experienced childhood sexual abuse. There weren’t many suggestions from previous research that gave us a confident idea about what specific approach works best.We found evidence that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Art Psychotherapy can be useful, and we wanted to combine them in a group setting to see how helpful this was.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy looks at how our thoughts might affect our behaviours and feelings, while Art Psychotherapy uses and explores image-making as a way of helping with distressing experiences and emotions.We organised seven groups with a total of forty-one women. Two therapists (one specialist in each therapy) led each group, held over twenty sessions.There were three parts to the group: firstly we covered coping strategies, then we looked in more detail at each person's account of what they had been through. Finally, we supported women to review what had happened for them in the group and to plan for after it had ended.Each week we began by looking at a topic or theme relevant to this group (e.g. flashbacks) through information giving and discussion. The theme provided a starting point for using the art materials, followed by group members being invited to share the images they had made and how that had felt, and to explore any thoughts and feelings that arose in the group in response.We gave each woman three questionnaires to complete at the beginning and the end of the groups, and compared the results. These showed that there had been improvements in mood, self-esteem and psychological well-being.There are limitations with these results, partly because the numbers are small. However, they suggest that more research would be worthwhile.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 9 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.