Male Survivors Taranaki

Male Survivors Taranaki

Exploring male childhood sexual abuse survivors’ experiences of specialist counselling services

by

Global estimates suggest 5% to 10% of men report experience of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). However, male CSA is significantly underreported, with men being reluctant to disclose due to vulnerability, stigmatisation, homophobic responses and fearing a loss of masculinity.

A lack of research and service provision targeted towards men suggests male survivors of CSA are marginalised. This qualitative study, using a narrative approach, focussed on four adult male survivors of CSA. The aim of the study was to explore their experiences of engaging in counselling and support services for CSA from nonstatutory and voluntary organisations. Face-to-face narrative interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Analysis was undertaken using a two-phase approach; first, each narrative was analysed as a whole; second, an across-transcripts analysis was carried out to identify shared themes and divergences that emerged from the individual stories. In this paper, findings from the second phase of the analysis are presented. Three themes regarding male survivors’ experiences of specialist counselling services were identified: “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor,” “Trust me, I’m a Counsellor” and “Counsellor or Mother?”

This is the first academic study focussing specifically on men’s experience of support for CSA in the UK from a service user perspective. Making an original contribution to the knowledge base regarding counselling experiences and the effectiveness of therapy for male CSA survivors, it will help to inform professional counselling services which are likely to come into contact with male survivors of CSA.

Download PDF

Sexual violence against males common, but still taboo says survivor

by

The journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga is long – almost three million steps – but the road to healing from sexual abuse has felt a lot longer for a father of six who was raped over a period of several years by a family friend.

Sam Troth has embarked on a solo walk from the south of Aotearoa to the north, which will take him 55 days to complete.

But it is not a long time for the 39-year-old Bay of Plenty man who took 25 years to speak out about how he was repeatedly raped and violated, and psychologically manipulated by an adult male who was a close acquaintance of his family.

Read full article

Homeless ‘experts’ – the homeless – to help funnel funds into what works

by

When it comes to helping the homeless, often the agencies get together and put in place what they think people need, says The Male Room director Philip Chapman.

But very, very rarely asking people [themselves]. The experts are the people living on the street.

The Male Room, a drop-in centre that offers advocacy and support, is to receive $250,000 in funding to address homelessness, the Government announced on Wednesday.

In Nelson, those funds will be used to create a governance group “driven by the homeless, and supported by the community, to identify and plan strategies that provide housing options for the homeless”.

The trust was one of 10 successful applicants receiving a total of $6 million in round two of the Local Innovation and Partnership Fund (LIPF) confirmed by Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness), Marama Davidson.

Read full article

Male sexual abuse survivors share their stories in new exhibition

by

A group of 28 men have come forward to share their stories of sexual abuse in order to help others.

The stories are part of The Bristlecone Project and Hopeful Horizons exhibition on at Koru on Devon in New Plymouth.

It features stories like that of Shane Fox, who was abused when he was just seven years old, and Don Ballard, who was just 10 years old.

One in six New Zealand males under the age of 18 are sexually abused and 90% of New Zealand males who take their own life before the age of 14 have been sexually abused.

The whole point of the show is to actually raise awareness, which is actually really low about this sort of stuff

Tony Chamberlain, who sits on the national board for Male Survivors Aotearoa and brought the exhibition to New Plymouth

Read full article

The shocking scale and impact of decades of abuse by multiple Marist Brothers and Fathers

by

A series of stories has revealed the shocking scale and enduring impact of decades of sexual abuse by Marist Brothers and Fathers. But as National Correspondent Steve Kilgallon explains, yet more survivors are now coming forward and the story is far from over.

“I was in tears reading your story,” says Dave Thomas (not his real name), of seeing the first in Stuff’s nine-part series about sexual abuse by the Marist Brothers and Fathers, two powerful Catholic religious groups.

Then, says Thomas, he sat and read it all over again. The story focused on a prolific abuser, Marist Brother Kevin ‘Brother Giles’ Waters, who never faced justice during his long teaching career.

Thomas says he too was raped by Waters, his rugby coach, while a student at Auckland’s Sacred Heart in the late 1980s. He says when he tried to complain to the principal, he was dismissed. Waters then repeatedly warned him to stay quiet, and made his life miserable, vandalising his bike, and ostracising him from his friends until he left school early, at 17.

Waters, he says, “was an absolute monster … I was absolutely petrified of him”. He’s certain Waters had realised he would complain, “so I was completely victimised – and no one believed me in the end.” Thomas also named another Brother, still alive, as abusing him later in his school career.

Read full article

Palmerston North exhibition ‘path to healing’ for sexual abuse victim

by

Artistic fragments of a childhood filled with trauma and frequent sexual abuse are on display at Square Edge in a bid to encourage others to ask for help.

Catherine Daniels’ experiences were channelled into 49 sculptures and a book, that she hopes will resonate with people and foster conversation.

Daniels purposely created the sculptures with minimal features, to allow her audience to project their own experiences onto them.

They have no hair or facial features, so people can look at them and see themselves looking back.

Each one portrayed a part of her childhood, and the book used metaphors to explain the lingering emotions.

Daniels said this was the story of lots of children who were abused. She made some sculptures life-sized to show this.

“Children this size are abused.”

She was spending each day in the Square Edge Community Arts gallery, talking to visitors and answering questions.

Ninety per cent of people who came in to look at the exhibition had something to say about their own personal journey.

Read full article

How Marists avoided large victim payouts, despite huge wealth

by

The Marist Brothers and Fathers have educated prime ministers, judges, cardinals and All Blacks at their prestigious Catholic high schools. But their record of sexual abuse is horrific. Worse still was their handling of the abuse when it was exposed. In this series, The Secret History, Steve Kilgallon investigates the power, abuse and cover-ups at the heart of two highly-influential and wealthy religious groups.

Waiheke Island, 2002. Robbie West* isn’t in a good way. He’s taking a lot of methamphetamine and drinking heavily, but making a valiant effort to tidy his life up.

After nearly three decades, he’s realised that the recurring nightmares that keep pushing him back to drink and drugs are actually painful memories he’s been working hard to bury. Having tried police and lawyers to gain redress and compensation for the abuse he suffered at the hands of his schoolteacher – a man we cannot name for legal reasons – he’s now turned to his teacher’s religious order, the Marist Brothers.

West turns up with his counsellor to a small church hall in Oneroa – the main town on the Hauraki Gulf island – where he’s met by Brothers Henry Spinks (who has since died) and Richard Dunleavy, who between them handled the Brothers’ compensation settlements for over 20 years.

Read full article