You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This paper draws on the myth of Pandora and explores the metaphors within it to discuss the early stages of therapeutic work with children and young people who have suffered sexual abuse. The author underlines the importance of forming a professional network or team around the child, especially where developmental trauma is part of the child or young person’s experience. This contribution aims to show how the background history of the patient, like in the myth of Pandora, can be missed, and how gathering up the child or young person’s history is a key part of the early work. The author discusses how, for some patients, the idea of ‘opening up’ comes with a worry about being intruded into for fear of being overwhelmed by the trauma that they may have been working hard to defend against. Feelings of self-blame as well as deep-seated feelings of shame are often expressed by those who have suffered from sexual trauma in childhood and are present from early on in the work. The author discusses how blame is an undercurrent in the Pandora myth and how, on occasion within the clinical setting, this can be projected into the therapist. The author looks at the conundrum in the Pandora myth relating to the presence of hope: its potential in the recovery process but also its use as a defence. The paper concludes by considering the importance of hope, which is a key part of the myth and can act as a mobilising factor in the recovery of traumatised patients. The author outlines how the use of the ‘Hopes and expectations for treatment approach’ (HETA), devised by the child and adolescent psychotherapist Cathy Urwin might be used to capture and consider these issues at the end of the assessment period within the clinical setting.