Women's Narratives of Healing from the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Women's Narratives of Healing from the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Karen E. Wood c Karen E. Wood, June 2009. All rights reserved. Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-92177-7 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-92177-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department Community Health & Epidemiology College of Medicine University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E5 Canada i Abstract The health of women is compromised by the experience of sexual abuse in childhood. Women who have been sexually abused in childhood say they are `healing', but there is little literature on this healing process. The purpose of my research is to gather stories of healing from women who were sexually abused in childhood, analyze them, and learn about healing. The themes that emerged were integrated with a chronological restorying of the women's narratives and the literature, resulting in a model of healing that addresses the complexities of women's lives. ii Acknowledgements Many thanks are due to my supervisor, Dr. Sylvia Abonyi, who provided the sup- port and guidance I needed to work independently, and at the same time managed to be unconditionally available for valuable direction and feedback. I also want to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Dr. Pamela Downe, Dr. Jennifer Poudrier, Dr. Lewis Williams, and Dr. Ann Leis, and my external examiner, Dr. Helene Berman. The theoretical and research expertise my committee members pro- vided both challenged and supported me in a manner that facilitated the best learning opportunity a student could have. I would like to acknowledge the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology for providing the opportunity and environment for pursuing my research and studies. Thank-you to the staff, board members, and service users of Tamara's House. I worked with the knowledge that this work matters, and that I was not alone. The warmth and encouragement from this community was tremendous. I carry a depth of gratitude to every one of the women who participated in, and contributed to, this research. I continue to feel privileged to have heard each story, and I was honoured by their trust. Finally, I continue to be truly grateful for my family and friends, who celebrated with me each step of the way. To my children, Oliver, Sam, and Anna, your efforts at not interrupting me when I was `in the middle of a thought' have paid off. You are spectacular. And to Kevin, your continued support and unwavering faith in the work that I do is extraordinary. I am blessed. iii For my parents Charlotte & Charles Wood iv Contents Permission to Use i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Contents v List of Tables ix List of Figures x List of Abbreviations xi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation . 1 1.2 Research Goal . 2 1.3 Approach . 2 1.4 Contributions . 4 1.5 Dissertation Structure . 5 1.6 Summary . 5 2 Background and Related Work 7 2.1 Child Sexual Abuse . 7 2.1.1 History of Child Sexual Abuse . 7 2.1.2 Definition and Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse . 9 2.1.3 Silence and Secrecy of Child Sexual Abuse . 10 2.1.4 Women and Sexual Abuse . 10 2.2 Health and Healing . 12 2.2.1 Health Impacts . 12 2.2.2 Trauma . 14 2.2.3 Therapy . 16 2.2.4 Healing . 18 2.2.5 Voice . 19 2.3 Narrative Research on Healing from Child Sexual Abuse . 20 2.4 Memory and Child Sexual Abuse . 22 2.5 The Body and Child Sexual Abuse . 25 2.5.1 Skin as a Boundary . 25 2.5.2 Individual, Social and Political Bodies . 26 2.5.3 The Subjective Self . 27 2.6 Summary . 28 3 Methodology 31 3.1 Methodological Approach . 31 v 3.1.1 Power . 31 3.1.2 Positioning of Researcher . 32 3.1.3 Worldview . 36 3.2 Narrative Research Design . 36 3.3 Methods . 39 3.3.1 Sampling . 40 3.3.2 Data generation . 42 3.3.3 Data management . 43 3.3.4 Transcript release . 44 3.3.5 Analysis and data representation . 45 3.3.6 Rigour and legitimacy of results . 49 3.4 Summary . 49 4 Profiles 50 4.1 Lisa . 51 4.2 Nel . 53 4.3 Jane . 54 4.4 Corrie . 55 4.5 Sara . 57 4.6 Tuppence . 58 4.7 Jac . 60 4.8 Les . 61 4.9 Jennifer . 63 4.10 Kristie . 64 4.11 Mary Jane (M.J.) . 65 4.12 Connie . 67 4.13 Sonshine . 68 4.14 M.C. 69 4.15 The Researcher and the Women's Stories . 71 4.16 Summary . 72 5 Naming, Remembering and Memory 73 5.1 Naming, Remembering and Memory . 73 5.1.1 Memories without a name . 79 5.1.2 Did not remember or know . 90 5.1.3 Remembered and knew . 95 5.2 Support and Safety . 103 5.2.1 Trust . 104 5.2.2 Disclosure . 105 5.3 Challenge . 107 5.3.1 Embodied Sense of Self . 112 5.3.2 Choice . 114 5.3.3 Summary . 115 6 Restorying 117 6.1 The Sequence of Healing . 117 6.2 First story . 120 6.3 First naming . 121 vi 6.4 Crisis . 125 6.5 Second naming . 129 6.6 Second story . 131 6.7 Telling . 134 6.8 Complicity of the narrator . 136 6.9 Summary . 137 7 Body 139 7.1 Body Memory . ..