Women’s Healing Journey From Intimate Partner Violence: Establishing Positive Sexuality

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) have an elevated risk for negative sexual health outcomes, including HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI). Given the unique risk contexts for survivors, there is a need for effective sexual health interventions that take into account the imbalances of power for women who are survivors of IPV. Toward the aim of informing contextually relevant intervention approaches, this article describes women’s strategies toward maintaining their sexual health in the context of violent, controlling relationships. Strategies are examined across women’s healing process. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-person interviews with women who had experienced IPV ( N = 28). Participants had a wide range of negative sexual health outcomes and commonly used an analogy of a journey to describe their healing. Throughout these journeys, women gained more confidence and ownership over their sexuality. Themes centered around enhanced self-acceptance, ownership of personal sexuality, and readiness for desirable sexual partnerships.

Possessed by the Virgin

This book is an ethnographic account of three Roman Catholic women in contemporary Tamil Nadu, south India, who claim to be possessed by Mary, the mother of Jesus. It follows their lives over more than a decade, describing their own, the researcher’s own, and devotees’ understandings of the women’s healing and possession practices along with questions about agency, gender roles, authenticity, and social power. It asks, how is it that some experiences of “possession” (a word introduced to India by Christian missionaries, which the book complicates through Tamil renditions) are recognized as authentic, yet others are not? What are the local conditions that enable their very possibility? Discussions of local and widespread “Hindu” practices and discourses shed light on how these women and their followers navigate their bodily experience, socioeconomic status, caste, and gender roles in a modern world of technological change and global economy—and how Church officials navigate these women. Part travelogue, part academic analysis, the book addresses a wide audience, including academics interested in the study of religion, spirit possession, anthropology, women’s and gender studies, postcolonialism, Global Christianity, Tamil culture, Mariology, fluid boundaries across “traditions,” and the relationship between the ethnographer-“Self” and “Other.”

Positive Sexual Self-Schemas of Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of eight women survivors of childhood sexual abuse who view themselves as having a positive sexual self-schema, including their experiences of sexual satisfaction. Through thematic analysis, we developed the following themes: The Context for Sexual Development, Sexual Exploration, Coping Strategies, and Embracing the Sexual Self as Whole. The findings highlight the importance of relational, interpersonal, and community healing. Integral to women’s healing were experiences of sexual risk that allowed them to gain a sense of agency and empowerment. The themes that emerged provide additional support for Relational Cultural Theory as well as post-traumatic growth. We discuss the implications of these results in relation to counseling practice, training, and research.