Family Therapy Treatment for Incest Related Issues

Coordinator – Judy Katz-Charny, M.S.W.

 

In 1992, two of our staff members, Judy Katz-Charny and Anat Goldstein began working with a very difficult incest case. The treatment included long-term individual and family therapy.  Their work involved contact with the prison authorities where the father was serving a 5-year sentence for his crime.  For the first time in Israeli legal history, the father’s leave for home visits was made conditional on his participation in the family therapy session held at Shiluv.  Our therapists were instrumental in initiating the court’s decision. During work with this complicated case, an innovative intervention was developed: Video Replay.

                                                                                    

Video Replay is used for re-empowering an incest survivor and protecting the integrity of the family. It is recognized that the confrontation between victim and perpetrator, especially when the perpetrator has been incarcerated, is a most profound and difficult encounter.  Judy Katz-Charny and Anat Goldstein generated the idea of using video replay when they identified the intense apprehension of a youngster about sitting with her family, especially with her father (the perpetrator). She was not required to be in the initial family sessions. Instead, she was invited to view the videotaped sessions together with her therapist until she felt comfortable enough to join her family, including the father. The video served as a “protective shield,” empowering the victim, facilitating ongoing family sessions, and providing therapeutic leverage throughout the treatment process. Video replay has been introduced systematically at Shiluv in work with incest families.

 

Over the years, we have continued to receive incest referrals and out of this work, the idea grew to create a special unit that would treat these cases.  This Unit was created in 1999. Since then, with our growing expertise, we have trained the Jerusalem Municipality’s child protection workers in family therapy with families in which incest occurred, as well as special workshops for other agencies. Plans are now being made to make a Teaching Tape to instruct other professionals in this work.

The Unit’s staff consists of Judy Katz-Charny, Hayim Cohen,Elisabeth Belais Gelkopf, Anat Goldstein.

 

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