Link – FA abuse inquiry chief receives counselling after hearing victims’ stories
This should tell you a bit about how difficult this kind of work is.
The man leading the independent investigation into historical child sex abuse in football has received counselling to deal with the traumatic evidence he has heard.
First off, good for them for recognizing the need for counseling in the midst of this sort of situation. It is incredibly difficult to be surrounded day after day with the stories of child sexual abuse that I’m sure they are hearing and investigating.
Secondly, this is why I’m always wary of advocates who are constantly searching for and haring the worst stories they can find of child abuse, because you just can’t surround yourself with that kind of input day in and day out and not suffer for it in some way. It’s up to us to do what we can, not so much that we damage ourselves.
Lastly, I think this situation also points out how difficult child abuse investigations can be. Simply hearing these stories over and over can be damaging. I think often when we ask the questions about why children aren’t believed, or why investigations aren’t moving faster, we need to remember that for most of us, there is a self-defense mechanism that clicks in every once in awhile to protect us from that damage. It’s our responsibility to work through that, but it’s important to understand why it’s there, and why this kind of work may be triggering it in people. Hopefully, counseling like this can help these folks do just that and continue to get to the truth.
