Long-Term Effects and Implications for Treatment

Recent prevalence studies have suggested that 15-22’10 of women have been raped at some point in their lives, many by close acquaintances, although few victims seek assistance services or professional psychother-apy immediately post-assault. Surveys have revealed that 31-48 % of rape victims eventually sought professional psychotherapy, often years after the actual assault. These observations suggest that the primary role of clinicians in the treatment of rape victims i s the identification and han-dling of chronic, post-traumatic responses to a nonrecent experience. However, it is concluded that most of the existing literature on rape treatment addresses only the target symptoms that represent the immedi-ate response to rape. In this article, contemporary theoretical and empiri-cal discussions of stress, cognitive appraisal, cognitive adaptation, and coping are used to conceptualize the long-term impact of rape and the process of resolution. Directions for future research on the clinical treat-ment of rape are suggested. None of us can help the things that Life has done to us... They’re done before you realize it, and once they’re done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you would like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever