Loving Someone Who Has Sexual Trauma

A Compassionate Guide to Supporting Your Partner and Improving Your Relationship

by Megan L Negendank

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Pub Date Nov 30 2023 | Archive Date Oct 01 2023

New Harbinger Publications, Inc. | New Harbinger

Health, Mind & Body | Self-Help

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Description

If your partner is a survivor of sexual trauma, they may experience anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or feel triggered by intimate situations. And you may feel confused, overwhelmed, or unsure of how to support them. This gentle guide will give you the tools you need to help nurture intimacy and trust, and cultivate a secure relationship.

In Loving Someone Who Has Sexual Trauma, marriage, family, and sex therapist Megan Lara Negendank offers self-compassion and attachment-based communication skills to support your partner. You'll also learn powerful, trauma-informed techniques and strategies to help you understand the full impact of your partner's past experience, increase feelings of safety and connection, and ultimately improve your relationship in the here and now.

In this gentle guide, you'll discover:

- Communication skills to help promote trust
- How to avoid or deescalate from common triggers
- How to identify attachment styles and soothe conflict patterns
- Emotional and physical bonding skills

If you're ready to move beyond fear, anger, and disconnection to a thriving intimate relationship where you both can feel loved, safe, and connected, this book can help you get started.

If your partner is a survivor of sexual trauma, they may experience anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or feel triggered by intimate situations. And you may feel confused...

Advance Praise

“Megan has shed light, compassion, and hope on a sorely under-discussed topic: how to best support a partner with a sexual trauma history. As a fellow trauma therapist, I deeply respect the way Megan has approached this topic with a wonderful combination of psychoeducation, coping skills, and stories to equip partners of those who have experienced sexual trauma to both show up for them and for themselves.”
—Annie Wright, LMFT, licensed psychotherapist, relational trauma recovery specialist, and trauma therapy center founder

“Although resources for survivors of sexual trauma abound, very few exist for their intimate partners. Partners play a crucial role in the day-to-day lives, sexual experiences, and healing journeys of survivors. It can be difficult to understand reactions and coping mechanisms a survivor may express. To know what to say or how to react. Negendank’s work is a pivotal asset in helping alleviate relationship distress while increasing intimacy and pleasure.”
—Natasha Helfer, LCMFT, CST-S, group practice director at Symmetry Solutions, host of the Natasha Helfer Podcast, and director of religion and mental health treatment at the Buehler Institute