Breaking Free Workbook

As a survivor of sexual abuse in childhood, you may find that its effects continue to haunt you – bringing guilt and shame, perhaps depression and anxiety, eating disorders, troubled relationships and sexual difficulties. But although you can’t alter the past, you can change the present and the future.

Breaking Free, by Kay Toon and Carolyn Ainscough, draws on their nationally recognized and pioneering work as clinical psychologists giving a voice to the Survivors of child sexual abuse. It uses their courage and experiences to help other survivors face their past and take steps towards a better future.

This new edition of the accompanying workbook now refers to types of abuse that have come to light more recently, such as street exploitation, and abuse by celebrities, politicians and football coaches, as well as the use of digital technology to groom children and young people. Practical exercises work step-by-step on the problems that result from being sexually abused as a child. They are designed to present survivors with different ways to think about the past, and to arm you with new strategies to move on from the problems that disrupt the present, and look forward to the future.

Exercises like these can be very beneficial, but they can also be painful. They can bring up strong feelings, so at every stage your safety and well-being are the first concern, and the book includes essential coping strategies for getting the level of support you need.

This practical book will be enormously useful for survivors of sexual abuse, and may also help those who have been abused emotionally or physically. Therapists will also find it a useful resource to use with clients, and both this book and Breaking Free are regularly recommended by professionals in the NHS and also in the media.

About the Authors

Kay Toon recently retired as a clinical psychologist. The late Carolyn Ainscough (d. 2000) was also a clinical psychologist.