Strengthening Vicarious Resilience in Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Narrative Approach to Couples Therapy

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is correlated with numerous adverse effects, both intrapersonal and interpersonal. Couples where one or more partners is a CSA survivor often report problems in social/relational adjustment, emotional expressiveness, revictimization, low relationship satisfaction and stability, and sexual dysfunction. Despite the adverse effects of CSA, some individuals with a history of CSA retain typical levels of functioning, and data from studies of resilience in CSA survivors suggest the importance of social and relational support for favorable outcomes. Resilience is not only an individual factor but also a social, ecological process, and research on vicarious resilience in therapist–client relationships suggests that resilience can be transmitted across relationship systems through a combination of witnessing resilience stories and beliefs about the possibility of resilience and its transmission. We suggest that in romantic partnerships (including nonheteronormative configurations) where one or more partners has a history of CSA, narrative couples therapy is well suited to address the systemic impacts of trauma and resilience by facilitating the transmission of each partner’s resilience to the other. Two narrative interventions, mapping and definitional ceremonies, are suggested to facilitate the transmission of resilience within the couple system through the sharing and witnessing of each other’s subjugated resilience narratives, thereby promoting a re-authored preferred identity based on acceptance, strength, and agency rather than shame, avoidance, and interpersonal difficulty.

Vicarious Resilience

This chapter serves as the conclusion for the book. A summary of the book and its contents is included and general themes are highlighted. The unique contributions of SFBT with clients who have experienced trauma are discussed. In addition, the benefits (for both the client and the clinician) of this kind of work is discussed. A review of the literature related to resilience and vicarious resilience is included and integrated with the assumptions of the SFBT framework. The editors each share how SFBT has shaped their clinical work and teachings. This chapter serves as a hopeful conclusion to this book.

Community Mothers and Vicarious Resilience: An Exploration in a Colombian Community

This study explores vicarious resilience process in early childhood education. It addresses the question of how low-income community mothers who are involved in child care and education for other low-income working caretakers are affected by the children’s resilience. It focuses on the women’s interpretations of the children and caretaker stories’ experiences and stories, and how they make sense of the impact these experiences and stories have on their lives. Twenty-one semistructured interviews were conducted with community mothers who work in the Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar Program (Wellness Community Homes), of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare in Cali, Colombia; their perceptions of the children and caretaker’s overcoming adversity were explored. Data were analyzed through grounded theory and Consensual Qualitative Research methodology to describe the themes that speak about the effects of witnessing how children and caretakers constructively overcame adversity. These themes are discussed to advance the concept of vicarious resilience and how it can contribute to sustaining and empowering educational endeavors, community leadership, and family life in the context of poverty, adversity, and potential trauma.