Teaching massage to non-abusing mothers of sexually abused children

Programme aims
By providing massage skills to parents the Programme aims to enable parents to relax and calm their child, reintroduce positive touch in a safe environment, enable bonding/rebuilding of the mother/child relationship and work towards replacing associated memories of touch, fear, pain and distress with love, nurturance and trust. In addition, it will provide early stages of long-term healing, enabling the child to feel confident in forming physical relationships throughout childhood and into adult life.

Supporting evidence

For the child
Research has shown that there are a number of well documented benefits for massage. Benefits include reductions in levels of anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure and depression.

For the parent
Non-abusing parents of children who have been sexually abused are often at risk from distress. Interventions designed to increase parents' perceived ability to contribute to the care of their child have been shown to improve parental wellbeing. Reducing parental stress and improving their wellbeing may, in addition, offer benefits to the child.

For the parent and child relationship
The relationship between the non-abusing parent and abused child is often damaged as a result of the abuse. Unfortunately it is this very relationship that is integral to the healing process and helping children cope with what has happened to them. Skills involving positive touch (e.g. gentle massage) may serve to improve both the damaged bond and communication between the non-abusing parent and child.

If you are interested in attending the workshops, or would like to know more about it please contact Denise Hubble 0800 980 1958 or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it I look forward to hearing from you.

Our workshops run as 3 group meetings for parents or carers. Followed by 3 individual appointments to suit with the child / children and parent or carer.