49: Understanding denial in children displaying harmful sexual behaviour

NSPCC Learning Podcast

In this podcast episode, Katy Tomkinson and Rowan Wolfe, who deliver our HSB service, talk about:

• what denial and shame might look like in children and young people
• the physical signs and non-verbal cues that children might display when talking about their experiences
• building trusting relationships and using therapeutic and trauma-informed approaches
• exercises for practitioners to help understand children’s lived experiences and explore feelings of shame and denial
• the impact on children of parents or carers experiencing denial
• techniques for working with a child or young person when they are fixed in their denial.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.
💬 About the speakers

Katy Tomkinson is a qualified social worker who has worked at the NSPCC for over five years. She has undertaken assessments of therapeutic need and provided therapeutic interventions for young people who have been sexually harmed.
Rowan Wolfe has worked at the NSPCC for fifteen and a half years as a qualified social worker. She has worked with children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour by undertaking assessments and providing therapeutic interventions.
📚 Related resources

> See our resources and research about harmful sexual behaviour

> Listen to our episode on direct work with children displaying HSB

> Play our episode on planning therapeutic sessions for children displaying HSB

Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros