MAY 2005, VOLUME 33, NUMBER 1, Abstract 1
Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Triggers to Remembering
Leigh Hodder-Fleming, Queensland University of Technology
Kathryn Gow, Queensland University of Technology
This article focuses on the triggers to remembering reported by an Australian sample of adult survivors of sexual abuse (N = 16). Participants were interviewed about the types of, and conditions surrounding, the triggers of initial memories while in therapy, or with the use of hypnosis. These conditions have been nominated by the FMS support groups as contributing to the recovery of false CSA memories. Participants in this study reported that they did not have their initial abuse memories triggered by therapy of hypnosis. They experienced a variety of trigger events which fitted categories similar of those proposed by Courtois (1992). One additional category was found in this study and it was named spontaneous trigger events. It included triggers of which the participant was not consciously aware and could not define. There appeared to be no method of predicting the type of trigger event that individual adult survivors would experience.