Case Report: The resiliency journey of a Vietnamese female sexual abuse survivor: an exploration in life history

Abstract

Currently, the studies on sexual abuse trauma, and resilience in Confucian survivors are still limited. The purpose of this study is to explore the resilience of Confucian women after sexual abuse trauma to provide evidence to support in counseling and psychotherapy practices. The article describes the resiliency story of a Vietnamese Confucian female survivor who was abused by her brother from the age of 8 to 16. The life history approach used in qualitative narrative research was applied in this study. The researcher identified two factors that strongly influence the survivor’s resilience: (1) the effectiveness of passive education in the general education curriculum is oriented to both competence and quality development; and (2) an authentic understanding of the core Confucian philosophical doctrine: the neutrality and the self-nurture. Based on the findings, we propose a 7-stage flow diagram of a Confucian women's resilience following sexual abuse. These findings provide a new approach to psychological counseling for female survivors of any religion by using Confucian philosophy and contribute to the impact of studies on religious and spiritual factors affecting the resilience of sexual abuse survivors.