Psychotherapy and the recovery of memories of childhood sexual abuse: U.S. and British practitioners' opinions, practices, and experiences.

Abstract

Licensed U.S. doctoral-level psychotherapists randomly sampled from the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology (Surveys 1 and 2, n = 145; Council for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, 1992) and British psychologists sampled from the Register of Chartered Clinical Psychologists (Survey 2, n = 57; British Psychological Society, 1993) were surveyed regarding clients' memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The 3 samples were highly similar on the vast majority of measures. Respondents listed a wide variety of behavioral symptoms as potential indicators of CSA, and 71% indicated that they had used various techniques (e.g., hypnosis, interpretation of dreams) to help clients recover suspected memories of CSA. Across samples, 25% of the respondents reported a constellation of beliefs and practices suggestive of a focus on memory recovery, and these psychologists reported relatively high rates of memory recovery in their clients.