Relational Family Therapy as an Aid Toward Resolving the Trauma of Sexual Abuse in Childhood in the Process of Separation in the Couple Relationship.

Relational family therapy (RFT) is a psycho-organic therapeutic approach that combines intrapsychic dynamics with interpersonal mechanisms and a systemic perspective. This integrative model is based on the assumption that the repetitive patterns of relationships in early childhood repeat in adulthood. It often happens that a sexually abused individual will later unconsciously be attracted to someone with whom they will relive the abusive atmosphere and dynamics from childhood. The purpose of this contribution is to present the RFT approach for dealing with sexual abuse. We will present a case study with individual segments from therapy with a woman, who previously had been sexually abused and was separated from her partner.