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CAC Support Group Recording - October 14, 2021

In this support group, we talk with the Just for Kids Child Advocacy Center in West Virginia about their plans to start a parent support group. We discuss things to consider when deciding whether to segregate groups by type of abuse or offer a combined group. We also discuss overcoming the culture of generational abuse and the challenges in supporting parents when they are also sexual abuse survivors. And we spend some time talking about how to challenge a parent's unhealthy thinking, words, or behaviors without judgment and shame so they can continue to stay present and receive the value of a different perspective.

 

CAC Support Group Recording - September 30, 2021

In this support group, we talk with the Children's Advocacy Network in Alexandria, LA regarding their experience in using a structured curriculum instead of a support group framework. They share the benefits of offering both options to meet different needs in their community. We discussed the ethical concerns of therapists supporting parents whose children they are treating and creative options for partnering with other CACs to support each other's parents. We also discuss their staff's experience sitting in on one of our existing phone-based support groups.

 

CAC Support Group Recording - September 9, 2021

In this support group, we review the curriculum that the Children's Advocacy Network in Alexandria, LA plans to use to start their caregiver support process and provide feedback on how to make it most valuable for caregivers whose children have been sexually abused. This CAC is not yet ready to start a weekly support group, so they plan to use this curriculum to begin the engage with parents, education them, and further understand their needs.

 

CAC Support Group Recording - August 12, 2021

In this support group, we talked about ideas to effectively market support groups to a CAC’s existing contact list, ways to increase participation of new and existing group members, and best practices in on-boarding new interns who will lead the support group. We also began to discuss the consequences of sexual abuse, as these are often the topics that parents raise during support calls. The first of these consequences that we discussed were various fears (being alone, the dark, sleeping alone, nightmares, night terrors, people, places, genders, activities, bathing, swimming, water on the face, closing eyes). We also talked about how parents of survivors often need to adapt their parenting styles to better support their children in their healing including validating their emotions, providing options, and empowering their children to choose.

 

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  1. CAC Support Group Recording - June 30, 2021
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