Transference paradigms at play in psychoanalytically oriented group therapy with female adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

This article presents a psychoanalytically oriented model of group treatment for female adult survival of childhood sexual abuse. Two key treatment issues-the survivor's struggle to trust her own mind and her tenacious allegiance to an omnipotent, all-bad self-representation-are used to illustrate ways in which the transference/countertransference matrix of the group, permits members to enact identify, and work through central internalized relational configurations. The group, therapist's role is to maintain transitionality a focus on process, and the capacity for play.