Recovery, Aided By Massage Therapy, For Childhood Sexual Abuse Victims

Posted on April 14, 2008 in Health and Fitness by admin

A very insightful study was completed by the School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle in regards to women who were sexually abused during Childhood. A team of researchers at the University introduced a hypothesis about standard Therapeutic Therapy vs. Body Oriented Therapy and its perceived affect upon women who were sexually assaulted in their youth. Their aim was to find out if body-oriented therapy would help reduce or diminish the psychological states that inhibit recovery.

I. Definitions of Interest: (1) Body-Oriented Therapy: a contemporary treatment which combines the use of massage and verbal therapy. (2) Psychotherapy: Treatment provided to individuals suffering from mental or emotional disorders. Commonly treated by: psychoanalysis, group-therapy, and other forms of therapy in practice today. (3) Statistical Significance: a number that expresses the probability that the result of a given experiment or study could have occurred purely by chance. This number can be a margin of error (“The results of this public opinion poll are accurate to five percent”), or it can indicate a confidence level (“If this experiment were repeated, there is a probability of ninety-five percent that our conclusions would be substantiated”). (4) Brief Symptom Inventory: designed to reflect psychological symptom patterns of psychiatric and medical patients. (5) Dissociative Experiences Scale: This 28-question self-test has been developed as a screening test for Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder. (6) Crime-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale: A scale which measures, or helps measure, post traumatic stress in relation to crimes – being victim of a crime. (7) Medical-symptoms checklist: Designed to help identify and understand what medical symptoms the individual is experiencing. (8) Randomized: Assigning patients at random reduces the risk of bias and increases the probability that differences between the groups can be attributed to the treatment.

II. Subjects: Control Group and Research Group

• 24 Women who were sexually abused in childhood and are currently receiving psychotherapy.

• Two Groups: Women were randomized into each group avoiding biases.

o One group received standardized Massage Therapy (Control Group)

o Other group received Body-Oriented Therapy (Research Group)

III. Time Period of Research: The period of the research was conducted over 10 weeks.

IV. Sessions and Clinicians: The sessions took place either in the University’s treatment room or in the research clinician’s private office. The two groups received eight sessions, which were an hour long. There were 4 clinicians: “Two of the clinicians were massage therapists and two were therapists who teach body awareness.”

V. Three Key Constructs Measured: Psychological well-being, Physical well-being, Body connection

VI. Delivery of Therapy: The delivery happened in three stages with body-oriented therapy: involving massage, body awareness exercises, and an inner-body focusing process. To serve as a relative control condition the other group received standardized massage therapy. This allowed the researchers to address the lack of touch based comparisons in body work research. As to patients outfit during massage, “Both protocols were delivered over clothes.”

VII. Measurement Instruments: Brief Symptom Inventory, Dissociative Experiences Scale, Crime-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale, A medical-symptoms checklist, Scales of body connection and investment

VIII. Statistically Significant and Improvements: The 24 women received a questionnaire: at baseline, at the end of the treatment, and a follow-up three months after treatment (It appears the follow-up questionnaire only interviewed the group receiving body-oriented therapy sessions). These questionnaires inquired about demographics, their experience and impact with the treatment, and their personal experience with the body-oriented therapy (Not applicable to the group who did not receive body-oriented therapy).

Statistical significance was not found nor the hypothesis verified, however they did find reports from the women of both groups received benefits from the treatments. Each group specified different experiences and different effects. The conclusion is that though there isn’t any real statistical significance, “both massage and body-oriented interventions influence abuse recovery in important but distinct ways.”

In conclusion this article was not written to excite the reader to rush to someone they know who was sexually abused and let them know they can be healed by body-oriented therapy. The purpose of this article is to show the research being conducted over Massage Therapy and its benefits when received. If you should decide to research this yourself, share it with a friend and feel it will benefit them. Please, have them contact their local physician, doctor, or certified massage therapist trained in this art of massage therapy before doing so. This is not a cure, but an alternative therapeutic treatment available to aid victims recovering from sexual abuse.

For more information about Massage Therapy go to www.free-body-massage.info.

Andrew is a Marriage, Family, and Human Development graduate who enjoys swing dancing, camping, fly-fishing, and other recreational sports which provide physical excercise and relaxation.

By A. Exon

www.free-body-massage.info.

Tags: Child, Childhood, Massage Therapy, Recovery, Sexual Abuse, Treatment, Victims

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