My guest this week is Dr. Jessica Bodie, a clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. We talked mostly about a topic that sadly is all too familiar for so many people, and that’s childhood sexual abuse. Jessica and I both treat adults who have lived through this form of trauma, and are still dealing with the after effects decades later. So this is a painful topic, and also such an important one.

We talked about the shame and self-blame that sexual abuse survivors often feel, and why it’s easy to be self-critical even though it clearly wasn’t their fault. We also talked about effective treatment, and how and why it works. And even though we can’t go back and change the past, we can come to a new understanding of what that childhood pain meant, and those trauma memories no longer have to haunt us. So this is a very hopeful discussion, and I hope you take a lot from it.

Topics we discussed included:

• Symptoms of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in childhood and adulthood
• Being vigilant for signs of CSA among children
• Body advocacy and the book Jessica recommends, My Body Belongs to Me (affiliate link)
• Self-blame among survivors of CSA
• The potentially adaptive role of avoidance after abuse
• Issues of intimacy and trust in adulthood
• The importance of adults’ reactions to children’s disclosures of abuse
• Why it’s often hard for children to report sexual abuse
• Blaming oneself for not stopping the abuse
• Common thoughts and beliefs among trauma survivors
• The brain’s efforts to protect us from future trauma
• Validating the severity and psychological weight of CSA
• Remembering what little kids’ worlds are actually like
• Revisiting traumatic memories through imaginal exposure
• Therapeutic processing of themes of guilt and shame
• The tolerability of cognitive behavioral exposure therapy for PTSD
• The effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure Therapy
• Addressing panic that arises for some trauma survivors when starting treatment
• The extreme relief that many trauma survivors find through Prolonged Exposure
• The possibility of self-guided treatment for trauma

Jessica Bodie, PhD, is Director of Child Services at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA) in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

She received her doctoral degree in clinical psych from Temple University, and completed an internship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Jessica specializes in the treatment of OCD, PTSD, social anxiety, panic disorder, specific phobias, and generalized anxiety. Additionally, she has conducted research on and treats extremely picky eating (also called Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, ARFID), emetophobia (vomit phobia), and choking phobia.

She is a certified clinician, consultant, and supervisor in Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD. Jessica participates in teaching, writing, supervision, and consultation to disseminate evidence-based treatments for anxiety and related conditions.

​Find out more about Jessica and the therapies she provides at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety website.