The lived experience of psychologists working with individuals convicted of sexual abuse of minors

Abstract

This study delves into the lived experience of psychologists in their work with individuals convicted of sexual abuse of minors. An in-depth understanding of pedophilia, the therapy provided in such cases and the effect that working with these clients has on psychologists was gathered from the literature available. Furthermore, this study looks into the lived experience of four psychologists through the use of semi-structured interviews, and the data collected was analysed via Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This study found that psychologists working with such clients experience various challenges which at times threaten their objectivity, a finding which highlights the importance of supervision. Moreover, it was noted that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy was described as the most effective therapy for child sexual offenders. It can be concluded that the results obtained in this study support the existing literature. The limitations of this study were also taken into consideration in order to evaluate the quality of this research, and suggestions for future studies were also made.