Counselling Referrals

In order to provide optimal conditions for successful counselling for children & young people under 18 years of age who have been victims of sexual violence, START has developed 3 important criteria for accepting referrals:

1. A FORMAL DISCLOSURE of sexual abuse has been made to a statutory authority (CYFS or Police).
   START is not legally empowered to investigate sexual abuse allegations and therefore requires a statutory agency to have looked into what has happened and establish the on-going safety of the child/young person. This also protects the child/ young person’s legal rights and often indicates a child/young person’s readiness to start addressing any impacts of the abuse.
   
   
2. The young person is deemed to be SAFE FROM THE PERSON THEY SAY HAS OFFENDED AGAINST THEM.
   To commence therapy for abuse, young people need to be physically, emotionally and mentally safe which means that START expects them to not be having contact with the person they say has hurt them (by phone, text, in person, mail or internet). This creates space for the young person to be able to explore their feelings about the abuse without having to emotionally protect themselves every time there is contact.
   
   
3. The young person is BELIEVED in their allegation, is in a SETTLED living arrangement where there is some predictability and has a SUPPORTIVE ADULT to attend counselling with them.
   When young people are able to leave aside basic survival concerns, they have more energy to deal with their emotional healing needs.

When parents/caregivers have concerns about the impact of sexual abuse on them they benefit from having someone to discuss these with and this enables them to have more energy to deal with their children’s emotional needs.