At the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse (CPTCSA) in the Philippines we provide therapeutic support to children who have been sexually abused and children demonstrating problematic and harmful sexual behaviour.

We opened the Centre in 1995 and started working with children demonstrating problematic and harmful sexual behaviour almost immediately. At first it came as a shock to us, that children were abusing other children in this way. We wanted to learn more about the issue in order to be able to respond effectively so we conducted research and connected with other professionals. We then started offering 1:1 counselling for children demonstrating problematic and harmful sexual behaviour.

Our programme uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and through 1:1 and group counselling, we support the child to understand their behaviour, accept accountability for their actions and develop empathy for the child they have abused. We also draw on restorative justice approaches, looking at what is broken – the actor, the child who has been abused, their families and community – and aiming to restore them to a complete state.

An integral part of the model is also training other professionals, including social workers, education service providers and staff working in childcare institutions.

We have faced several challenges in doing this work. As an organisation that focuses on a specialist area, it is difficult when staff leave. To mitigate this, we make sure that we document everything so that resources are available to support new staff.

The general denial and stigma in society about children who demonstrate this behaviour also makes this work challenging. Historically there have been no specific interventions for these children and children would instead be treated as adults in the criminal justice system.


"The problem belongs to society. We shouldn’t punish these children but we should accept that they have the capacity to hurt others."

 

Our model has received recognition from the Philippines government and in 2022 we were contracted to deliver nationwide training in all 88 Bahay Pag-Asa child rehabilitation centres.

To learn more about our model and how its implemented, download the Practitioner Guidance Paper below. 

Do you have any comments to share relating to our work, or learnings about how your organisation has approached the issue of problematic and harmful sexual baheviours in children? Please share, or post any follow-up questions for us at CPTCSA below - we'd love to hear from you.

The attached resources are part of the How We Care series, an innovative space for those working with children and families to share practice. By practitioners, for practitioners. Learnings from 2 other Family for Every Child members, on this theme, have been shared here.

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