Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Otago

The purpose of this thesis is to outline the clinical evaluations of women's psychological and social functioning before and after attending sexual abuse counselling sessions. There are two aims to the thesis. The first aim is to determine the range and extend of symptomatology, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, dissociative symptoms, anxiety and eating disorder symptoms, depression, substance abuse and impaired social functioning, by assessing clients for intake into sexual abuse programmes of Family Health Counselling services. The second aim is to determine the number of women in the study who experience decrease symptoms of PTSD, dissociation, anxiety, depression and substance abuse and experience improvements in overall social functioning following counselling. Measurements of symptomatology occurred at the initial assessment, then three months and six months after counselling began. The results confirm the general impression that child sexual abuse impact is serious and can manifest itself in a wide variety of symptomatic and pathological behaviour. Generally, women who report multiple abusive episodes which involve sexual intercourse will have a significantly increased likelihood of having PTSD symptoms.--AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT

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