cunningclaire

Third APPG report: Survivors’ experience of court and applying for compensation

I’m not sure how I missed this – drowning in thesis writing I’d guess – but there was a third APPG report published in October. This included data that I submitted from my research. The APPG recommendations were: 1. All court staff should undergo mandatory training that gives them a basic knowledge of trauma andContinue reading “Third APPG report: Survivors’ experience of court and applying for compensation”

World Mental Health Day

For #WorldMentalHealthDay2019 I’d like to see a recognition of how society affects mental health. For example, for people who have experienced trauma stigma and stereotyping can make them feel worse and stop them asking for help. We all need to change. Plus we need properly funded and appropriate services. This would mean trauma informed treatmentContinue reading “World Mental Health Day”

APPG report on the experience of the Police and Crown Prosecution Service

The second All Party Parliamentary Group Report (APPG) has been published. You can read it here. This one looks at people’s experience of the Police and Crown Prosecution Service. As before I submitted my research evidence to this. The recommendations are: Introduce a victims law with a code of practice, complaints procedure and properly resourcedContinue reading “APPG report on the experience of the Police and Crown Prosecution Service”

Memory Wars

In the 1990’s there was a lot of press about recovered memories of child sexual abuse (CSA), most suggesting that they were false memories implanted by therapists. I’ve been researching this area for my thesis and was surprised by what I found. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was founded by Peter and Pamela Freyd afterContinue reading “Memory Wars”

All Party Parliamentary Group Report

I believe research should aim to change things for the better so I feed my results in wherever I can. One submission I made was to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA). They have published the first in a series of reports and included the evidence IContinue reading “All Party Parliamentary Group Report”

CSA, Memory and Dissociation

During my research it has become clear that people who have experienced CSA do not know about advances in CSA research. This is no fault of theirs but instead reflects how taboo the subject is. Nobody talks about it but lots of people experience it. I want to share up to date information about CSAContinue reading “CSA, Memory and Dissociation”

Whatever gets you through the night…

As well as therapy two things are often suggested as ‘cures’ for trauma – art and yoga. This can be annoying, for its simplicity and the potential imposition of someone else’s ‘cure’ for your ill. However in my research art and yoga have indeed come out as positive experiences. So what’s the truth to this?Continue reading “Whatever gets you through the night…”

Evil

It’s been a while since I blogged. I’ve been typing up interview transcripts – a long and complex job and investigating future possibilities – more of those in later blogs. Now the University teaching year has started I’ve been teaching seminars and covering my supervisor’s lectures about the sociology of evil. It’s really interesting stuffContinue reading “Evil”

Music to Process Trauma by…

One of the things I was interested in whilst doing my research was whether anyone else found music as important as I did in recovering. Quite a few people mentioned music but I thought I’d share the songs that meant a lot to me. It’s all about the lyrics. Sometimes it’s about being angry…. Or,Continue reading “Music to Process Trauma by…”

Shame

Summer is the time for conferences and I’m speaking at 3 this year. Last Friday was the Gendered Emotions in History conference at the University of Sheffield and I compared some historic examples of child sexual abuse (CSA) with things that people had told me in my research. I’ll talk a bit more about theContinue reading “Shame”