Healing Tasks: Psychotherapy with Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse

339 Pages·2003·127.86 MB·English

by  James I. Kepner

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Selected Titles from GestaltPress
ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING: A GESTALT APPROACH
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GESTALT RECONSIDERED: A NEW APPROACH TO CONTACT AND
RESISTANCE Gordon Wheeler
GESTALT THERAPY: PERSPECTIVES AND APPLICATIONS
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THE COLLECTIVE SILENCE: GERMAN IDENTITY AND THE LEGACY
OF SHAME Borbara Heimannsberg and Christopher J. Schmidt
COMMUNITY AND CONFLUENCE:UNDOING THE CLINCH OF
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HERE, NOW, NEXT: PAUL GOODMAN AND THE ORIGINS OF GESTALT
THERAPY Taylor Stoehr
CRAZY HOPE & FINITE EXPERIENCE
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IN SEARCH OF GOOD FORM: GEST AL T THERAPY WITH COUPLES AND
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HEALING TASKS:PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH ADULT SURVIVORS OF
CHILDHOOD ABUSE James I. Kepner
GETTING BEYOND SOBRIETY: CLINICAL APPROACHES TO LONG-
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THE DREAMER AND THE DREAM: ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS ON GESTALT
THERAPY Rainene Eden Fants, edited by Arthur Roberts
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SKETCHES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ESSA YS, ART, AND POETRY
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PSYCHOTHERAPY Ruella Frank
ENCOUNTERING BIGOTRY: BEFRIENDING PROJECTING PERSONS IN EVERYDAY
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THE UNFOLDING SELF
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THE VALUES OF CONNECTION: ETHICS FROM A FIELD PERSPECTIVE
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Copyrighted Material
Healing Tasks
Copyrighted Material
James I. Kepner
Copyrighted Material
Healing Tasks
Psychotherapy
with Adult Survivors
of Childhood Abuse
GestaltPress
Copyrighted Material
Copyright C 1996, 2003 GestaltPress
66 Orchard Street, Cambridge MA USA
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro
duced, stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise without the prior written permission of
GestaltPress.
published and distributed by The Analytic Press
101 West Street
Hillsdale NJ 07642 USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kepner, James I.
Healing tasks: psychotherapy with adult survivors of child
abuse
includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0-88163-402-6
I. Adult child abuse victims. 2. Gestalt therapy
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Advance praise for IIetIllng Tasks --
"I am very enthusiastic about this book, its treatment orientation,
and its emphasis on healing tasks undertaken in a graduated
sequence. It makes a substantial contribution to the clinical
strategies currently available for the treatment of adult survivors
of childhood abuse, and as such, is a resource for therapists
struggling with treatment issues generated by the repressed
memory/delayed memory controversy."
-- Christine A. ColU1ois, PhD, psychologist and Director of
Clinical Training, The CENTER: Post-traumatic and
Dissociative Disorder Program, The Psychiatric Institute of
Washington, D.C., and author of Healing the Incest Wound:
Adult Survivors in Therapy and Adult Survivors of Child
Sexual Abuse
"Therapists, adult survivors, counselors, ministers, and all
concerned with the long-tenn effects of childhood abuse should
read this book. A fresh new approach that integrates recent
developments in the field of post-traumatic stress disorder."
-- John P. Wilson, PhD, Director, Center for Stress and
Trauma, Cleveland State University,· past president,
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; and author
of Countertransference in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder
"What fine work this is! Kepner, a virtuoso Gestalt therapist,
provides a poweIful, practical framework for survivors of abuse
and their therapists that is thorough, thoughtful, clear,
comprehensive, humane, and impeccably intelligent. A must for
any clinician's libnuy, and empowering reading for survivors in
need of a solid, intellectual grasp on their experience."
-- Bell8ruth Napan.k, LlSW, author of Staying Well with
Guided Imagery and creator of the Health Journeys audio
series
"Kepner provides a compassionate, knowledgeable, and careful
analysis of how to take a Gestalt approach when working with
survivors of child sexual abuse. I highly recommend his book."
-- Catherine Classen, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine
Copyrighted Material
I gratefully dedicate this book to my family.
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Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
The Author xxiii
Chapter One: Healing Tasks for Survivors of Abuse 1
Healing as Cure Versus Healing as Growth 1
Healing Tasks and the Phases of Healing 7
Chapter Two: Developing Support 15
Phenomenology of the Abusive Context 16
Establishing the Therapeutic Environment as Support 21
Discovering and Articulating the Truth Behind
One's Symptoms 29
Managing Levels of Stimulation and Arousal:
Essential Self Functions for the Support Phase 42
Systemic Social Support 50
Initial Reorganizing of the Sense of Reality and Self 53
Resolution of the Support Phase 55
Chapter Three: Developing Self Functions 59
Boundary Functions 65
Experiencing Functions 78
Self-Support Functions 83
Feeling Functions 84
Reality-Perception Functions 93
ix
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