Christianity and Child Sexual Abuse- Survivors informing the care of children following abuse

Thank you for inviting me to this study day on Spiritual Issues in Child Psychiatry. I think that professionals sorely overlook the area of Spirituality in our client’s lives. It is indeed most gratifying that psychiatrists feel an importance in looking more closely at how children, growing up in faith communities, might feel during and after being sexually abused. To say a little about myself first: I am a disabled woman, a committed Christian within the Catholic Church. My allegiance to ‘Church ’ however, as a man-made structure, falls way short of my allegiance to God! Indeed I have grave difficulties with the Church I’m supposed to be part of. I was a nurse at Great Ormond Street after which I changed careers and became a social worker. My 32 years of professional work has been entirely with either very ill or disabled children and am presently an Independent Trainer & Consultant on the abuse of Disabled Children, an area of work for which I’m well renowned. I describe myself as a feminist practitioner. In 1989 I founded a group for women and men who had been sexually abused within Christian homes. This organisation still operates, though this year I ‘retired ’ fro