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This is an extremely helpful book and is a valuable addition to the literature available to those who find themselves working in this area. Its strength is as a reference book and arises out of the author's long and painful struggle to think about and work effectively in the field of child sexual abuse. It offers an understanding of sexual abuse, why it happens and what perpetuates it despite the abuser's avowed wish for it to cease (syndrome of secrecy and addiction). It also suggests helpful ways to proceed when a case emerges, as a disclosure or in the midst of interventions for other reasons. The author uses many diagrams and coins terms and phrases that explain processes and events and makes them memorable in a way that is very useful. Of particular interest are chapters 6 and 7 which consider the primary therapeutic intervention when the possibility of sexual abuse emerges, and chapter 12: treatment issues; but the whole of the second part of the book, “Practical Problems”, is worth consulting.
There are a number of issues the author emphasises that I think are important and worthy of note. He is clear about the “trusted person” to whom the child speaks who, he points out, is thereafter a significant figure that the child may well have chosen with care. This trusted person must be helped to accept their important role for the child. Others subsequently involved with the case need to give this serious consideration. His clarity about the role of different disciplines is important for us all, what we can do and what we cannot do. Those of us in mental health, and our colleagues in social services and the legal system, need this constant reminder. What I now call an anonymous consultation he calls an Anonymous Diagnostic Interprofessional Consultation. I have found this enormously helpful as a concept and in practice when it is unclear as to what needs to be done. It helps generate questions such as am I over-involved and too anxious or not anxious enough? It also