Meet Carey Jones: Healing and Support for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Practical Help for Parents and Educators

by Christie Somes, Gerald D. Alpern Ph.D. (With)

Overview

Meet Carey Jones is the result of twelve years of therapy and support groups. What began as a healing journey for the author evolved into research and presentation of help for others. This book is beneficial for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It also provides excellent information for parents and educators helping a child to recover from sexual abuse while providing valuable guidance on the prevention of childhood sexual abuse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480887534
Publisher:	Archway Publishing
Publication date:	05/21/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	606 KB

About the Author

Christie Somes is a survivor of childhood sexual assaults that happened when she was just four and five years old. She carried many of the effects of her abuse for decades, not understanding the debilitating emotional, mental, and physical tolls the abuse created. In order to confront these effects, she has gone through a twelve-year journey of therapy and group support to bring about understanding, learning, and healing. Her personal knowledge of the subject of childhood sexual abuse and the practical information she learned through the healing process forms the basis for Meet Carey Jones.

Christie Somes is a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and friend. She is an entrepreneur, certified yoga instructor, and avid hiker. As a lover of the outdoors, she can also be found snowshoeing and horseback riding. Christie lives with her husband on their ranch in Colorado, and above all else, she enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Gerald D. Alpern, PH.D.Dr. Alpern is a former full professor at Indiana University Medical School and a clinical and developmental psychologist. His “Developmental Profile” series (wpspublish.com/DP3), which evaluates children’s development, has been used throughout many countries for more than thirty years. His clinical practice of more than fifty years involved working with children, families, and individuals. His writings include publications for both professionals and the lay public. His last book, Vets for Vets, is based on his hands-on work with the traumas of returning veterans. His contributions to Meet Carey Jones reflect his extensive clinical experience dealing with childhood traumas.

Editorial Reviews

2020-10-20
A childhood sexual assault survivor shares her recovery experiences and extensive personal research into the topic in this manual.

When Somes was about 4 years old, her lone confidant was her imaginary friend Carey Jones, a nonphysical presence that always offered her understanding rather than judgment. Many years later, while in therapy with Alpern, or Jerry as she calls him, she revealed a frightening truth—just before turning 5, she was pursued and violently sodomized by a neighborhood boy on numerous occasions. Somes confronted the way this impacted her life, delved into why she never told anyone about this abuse, and started to understand why she created Carey to help her. She also began extensive research into the subject of childhood sexual abuse. The result is this succinct yet thorough compendium—written with Alpern—that supports and informs not just sexual abuse survivors, but also their caregivers, parents, and educators, backed up with stigma-busting statistics. Concepts like triggers and self-care, oft ridiculed even as they become more broadly known, are explained along with their roles in developing effective coping techniques, avoiding harmful ones, and finding the resulting trauma behind anxiety and depression, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders, and addiction. Ways to spot abuse, handle revelations about it, and even discourage it by recognizing grooming behavior are also detailed, with an emphasis on frank communication between children and their parents or other sympathetic authority figures. The book approaches the topic of childhood sexual abuse in a straightforward, intellectual way, avoiding alarmist tropes or exploitative accounts. Much of the information here is presented as learned through Somes’ therapy, but facts and figures are still well cited. Her own experiences are intercut with other resources, from books like Marilyn Van Derbur’s Miss America by Day and Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score to guides from organizations such as Darkness to Light and the WINGS Foundation. The instruction presented here is practical, with the subjects including what a survivor should look for in a therapist and what questions to ask. The book also addresses the possible, often discouraging bumps in the road that may be encountered along the way. Somes’ personal experiences keep this advice from becoming too clinical. Numerous lists, with extensive appendices featuring further reading and useful outreach tools, make the manual easy to revisit.

Personal tragedy informs a valuable and meticulous guide to dealing with childhood sexual trauma.

Kirkus Reviews