Sexual Abuse Therapy Archives | Centering Healing

Was I Sexually Abused by My Mother? Why You Keep Questioning What Happened

Woman sitting quietly in warm window light beside a faded image of a young girl, representing childhood memories, uncertainty, and the lasting effects of trauma.

You may have asked yourself the same question hundreds of times: Was I sexually abused by my mother? Maybe something happened during bathing, dressing, sleeping, touching, affection, privacy, or what she called “care,” and when you remember it now your stomach tightens or you immediately want to move away from the memory. There may have…

5 Ways Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Can Reclaim Their Gifts After Grooming

By Chana Ceasar

Professional woman looking sad and reflective beside the title “5 Ways Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Can Reclaim Their Gifts After Grooming.”

Children develop a sense of identity through relationships, and the adults around them help shape what their natural capacities mean by noticing, remembering, encouraging, and reflecting them back. A child may feel drawn toward writing, music, movement, visual creativity, humor, leadership, curiosity, emotional sensitivity, pattern recognition, or problem-solving, and those gifts begin to take form…

Betrayal Trauma and the Parent Who Didn’t Protect You

By Chana Ceasar

Woman sitting alone holding a tissue, reflecting on betrayal trauma from a parent who didn’t protect her during childhood sexual abuse and attachment trauma. Betrayal trauma occurs when a caregiver fails to protect a child from harm, leading to long-term patterns of self-doubt, attachment confusion, and difficulty trusting one’s own experiences.

The Night It Surfaces It’s late. You’re in your apartment, alone, phone in hand, doing what you do when your mind won’t settle: scrolling. A Reddit thread catches your eye. In this thread someone is describing abuse, a parent who crossed lines and how the other parent just stood in the room and said nothing.…

How Childhood Sexual Abuse Affects Sexual Development, Desire, and the Way You Experience Yourself in Relationships

By Chana Ceasar

You’re lying in bed next to your “friends with benefits”, your situationship, your causal relationship, secretly wondering why you there. You remember when he called you and you decided to allow him to come over. As the evening progressed, him moving closer and saying all the right things, you remember thinking you wanted this. But…

When Wanting Gets Confused with Taking: A Common Pattern of Freeze in Child Sexual Abuse Survivors

By Chana Ceasar

A woman sitting with a laptop, holding her temples and looking tense and overwhelmed, representing the internal freeze and self-monitoring that can occur when desire feels unsafe for survivors of child sexual abuse.

You met her at a work event and felt it almost immediately. She was doing the kind of work you have wanted to do for years, and when the conversation opened up you could feel your body sharpen with interest. You were engaged, quick, thoughtful, and more alive than you had felt all week. She…