Ett känslosamt möte : Socialsekreterares känslor och känslohantering kring barn som utsatts för sexuella övergrepp.

Title: An emotional meeting - The feelings and emotional management of social workers who meet sexually abused children. Education: Social work study program, 210 credits Author: Selma Rahmani och Frida Löhnert Supervisor: Erika Lundby Assessor: Jan Petersson The aim of this study was to investigate the feelings and emotional management of social workers who work, or have been working with sexually abused children. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with social workers. The social workers that participated in this study have thus had the experience of meeting children who have been sexually abused, and have been working with investigation or in treatment purposes. The selection was based on gaining understanding for the feelings that occur amongst the social workers and the strategies that they use to manage these feelings. The interviews were complemented with previous research in the form of scientific articles and theses. In relation to our theoretical approaches, we could deduce some important conclusions. We were for example able to confirm previous researches regarding the fact that working with sexually abused children is mentally stressful, and that it might be difficult to harbor these feelings. The results also showed that different strategies can be useful to harbor the feelings that arise. Through our analysis, this has been problematized and we have discovered that some of the strategies, especially the ones that are spontaneous or self-chosen, may lead to negative consequences. Keywords: Child sexual abuse, sexualized children, professionals, working with traumatized children, social work, emotional labor, supervision