How can school counselors raise student awareness of sexual abuse? How can a young survivor know that he or she is not the only one to experience sexual abuse? KIDSRIGHTS now offers an inexpensive booklet, If I Tell, to achieve both goals.
In the booklet, 12-year-old Tess movingly shares how the sexual abuse that occurred when she was younger affected her single-parent family, other relatives, and her. Tess explains how her frustration and stress in trying to care for her younger sister and the fear of being alone caused her mother to turn to an uncle for child care. Tess then tastefully describes the uncle's psychological manipulation that led to the abuse and her confusion, fear, conflicted feelings, and uncertainty about how to discuss the change in the relationship with her mother or others who could help her. Tess discusses the roles her cousin, her mother, her school counselor, a social services caseworker, a police investigator, a doctor, and a therapist played in stopping the abuse, improving family communication, and restoring Tess to self-confidence and a sense of normalcy.
Note: While the booklet is written for younger people, sexual abuse agencies will want to use it to help their adult clients confront memories of their own experiences or understand the impact sexual abuse has on their children.
Susan Marcy-Webster has 15 years of experience as a caseworker and case manager for the Child Protective Unit within her county’s Department of Social Services and an elementary and high school counselor. She used those experiences to write If I Tell so that she could help those children she met who faced the decision of whether to tell about the sexual abuse they endured. Susan earned a B.A. in Communication Studies at State University of New York at Oswego, New York, and an M.S in Education-School Counselor (K-12) at State University of New York in Oneonta.
For interview requests or questions about Webster, contact Selena Dehne at sdehne@jist.com or (651) 215-7548.
