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Trouble in Kittyville by Sunny Ann Westbridge 54 pages; black coil; catalogue #02-1106; ISBN 1-55395-391-6; US$21.00, C$31.00, EUR20.20, £14.00 Trouble in Kittyville is a brief therapy manual for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and victims who have become perpetrators.
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About the Book
About the Author
Sample Excerpts
Catalogue Info
About the Book
"Trouble in Kittyville" addresses the issue of sexual abuse perpetrated by children. This is a disturbing subject, causing even some therapists to avoid dealing with it. When it occurs within a family, attitudes and perceptions about sexual abuse perpetrators must be examined in detail.
Society's prevailing attitude toward adults who sexually abuse children is angry revulsion, accompanied by a sincere desire that they be removed from society, thus ensuring the public safety.
When children abuse each other, the paradigm shifts. The strong negative emotions felt towards adult abusers are not helpful when both victim and perpetrator are young children, perhaps siblings. Families may be at a total loss to know to begin to deal with the situation. In addition, the false societal assumption that only males abuse vastly increases the difficulties for those who are abused by females. In some families, tragically, the method of coping is total denial. This helps no one. For in truth, the question in such situations is not, "How can we inflict the most punishment possible?" but "What can we do to help these two victims heal, and how can we help prevent further victimization of and by either of them?"
Professional help is a must as the family begins its healing journey. This process can be lengthy. Unfortunately, in today's healthcare environment, insurance coverage for mental and emotional health is limited- in some cases so limited that effective treatment is nearly impossible.
Although professional guidance is necessary for its proper use, "Trouble in Kittyville" is a unique concept in that when the story is read to the child by the parent, the parent in effect becomes the therapist. Use of this material in brief-therapy treatment can both conserve resources and enable a family to heal.
Its purpose is to educate, encourage, and empower children and their parents- to teach children that they can say NO, that they can run, that they can bite, scratch, kick and scream when faced with a threatening situation. It is to be used to ease the emotional pain of the victims of sexual abuse and to alleviate the lack of understanding that paralyzes families when the child-to-child abuse occurs. This book can help speed along the healing of the emotional wounds caused by these tragic events.
For more information, please email the author at swestbridge@yahoo.com.
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About the Author
Sunny Ann Westbridge is a lifelong resident of the Midwestern United States with an abiding interest in psychology. Her hobbies include reading, photography and artwork. She has previously written short stories for children, and a collection of poetry.
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Sample Excerpts
Their faces are haunting- no gaiety, no spontaneous bubbling infectious laughter, no sweet little giggles- instead, a lost look about the eyes, as though the spirit has withdrawn into itself, searching in vain for a place of safety. And no place on earth feels completely safe for a child who has been sexually abused.
"Trouble in Kittyville" addresses the issue of sexual abuse perpetrated by children. This is a disturbing subject, causing even some therapists to avoid dealing with it. When it occurs within a family, attitudes and perceptions about sexual abuse perpetrators must be examined in detail.
Society's prevailing attitude toward those who sexually abuse children is angry revulsion, accompanied by a sincere desire that they be removed from society, thus ensuring the public safety. However, it is well known throughout the therapeutic community that victims may become perpetrators themselves. This correlation is, unfortunately, neither known nor accepted by the majority of the population. One of the saddest things about today's society is that those who perpetrate sexual abuse and enter the legal system rarely receive the help they need, and thus may go on to abuse again and again. Sexual abuse does not originate in some black pit in a person's soul. It is cyclical, in that approximately 98% of those who abuse others were abused themselves. This vicious cycle in no way excuses such behavior, but societal refusal or reluctance to acknowledge it does nothing to increase our understanding of the problem.
Sexual abuse victims may choose to deal with their traumatic experience in three basic ways:
They may remain victims, going through their lives powerless to prevent whatever may happen to them.
They may become perpetrators, attempting to regain their sense of lost power by inflicting the wounds they suffered onto others.
They may become protectors, keeping a watchful eye on the vulnerable ones in their lives.
When children abuse each other, the paradigm shifts. The strong negative emotions felt towards adult abusers are not helpful when both victim and perpetrator are young children, perhaps siblings. Families may be at a total loss to know how to begin to deal with the situation. In addition, the false societal assumption that only males abuse vastly increases the difficulties for those who are abused by females. In some families, tragically, the method of coping is total denial. This helps no one. For in truth, the question in such situations is not, "How can we inflict the most punishment possible?" but "What can we do to help these two victims heal, and how can we help prevent further victimization of and by either of them?"
"Trouble in Kittyville" is a unique concept in that when the story is read to the child by the parent, the parent in effect becomes the therapist. In today's healthcare environment, with insurance coverage for mental and emotional health limited, use of this concept in brief-therapy treatment can both conserve resources and enable a family to heal.
Reactions of the children exposed to this material have been remarkable. They listen, they talk, and they lose the feeling that they are the only ones these things have ever happened to. Using animals as characters instead of people reduces the tension, making the entire subject less threatening for children. They know that Kittyville is a make-believe place, but seem to feel that if such things can happen even in a 'pretend' town, then maybe, just maybe, they aren't completely alone in the world, after all.
When used in therapy, the story is broken into sections, giving the children ample time to talk about the characters and tell as much of their own story as they can. During the reading of the story, most children who have been victimized sit quietly and listen intently. When the questions are read in the course of the story, the children are still wrapped up in the characters, and will answer them.
One little girl asked for and was given a copy of the material to take home with her. Her father reported that during the long drive from the office to her home that night, she settled herself in the back seat with a flashlight and read the story to herself all the way home.
After hearing this material in session, another child asked, "Will you call me Tilly? I'm Tilly..."
Children who have been victims face a bewildering array of overwhelming emotions. This barrage of feeling, this betrayal of trust is at the root of the haunted look and hollow eyes of these children. "Trouble in Kittyville" helps them understand that they are not alone, not at fault, not bad- and with this understanding comes the promise of little smiles and laughter, as the healing begins and their world slowly ceases to be such a terrifying place.
The purpose of this book is to educate, encourage, and empower children and their parents- to teach children that they can say NO, that they can run, that they can bite, scratch, kick and scream when faced with a threatening situation. It is to be used to ease the emotional pain of victims of child sexual abuse, and to alleviate the lack of understanding that paralyzes families when child-to-child abuse occurs. This book can help speed the healing of the emotional wounds caused by these tragic events.
The following excerpt contains the first chapter in its entirety.
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TROUBLE IN KITTYVILLE
CHAPTER 1
Once upon a time in a little town called Kittyville, there lived three little kittens named Tilly, Kimmy and Sissy. Their big yellow house had a big back yard, and they had lots of toys to play with. Mommy and Daddy Kitty lived there too. Gramma Kitty came to visit often, and so did all the Kitty aunts, uncles and cousins.
Tilly was the oldest, Kimmy was middle-sized, and Sissy was the littlest kitty of all. They each had big bright eyes that sparkled when they had fun- and they had lots and lots of fun! All three would go running through the house and out into the big back yard, where they tumbled all over each other in the bright green grass. They chased leaves and bugs, and pounced on anything that moved, including each other’s tails. It was so much fun to be a kitty, with sunshine to bask in, green grass to play in, bugs to chase and butterflies to watch!
One bright sunny day while they were playing happily in the yard, Mommy Kitty came to the back door and called, "Kimmy! Sissy! Come inside, now- it's time for you to take your naps!"
"Oh, Mommy, do we HAVE to?" wailed Kimmy. "We're having fun out here! We don't wanna take a nap!"
"No, no, no, no!" said Sissy. "No nap, no nap, no nap!"
"Yes, yes, yes," said Mommy. "Naps for middle-sized and littlest kitties, but first- milk and cookies for all three of you!"
All at once, a nap didn't sound so bad after all, and when the cookies had been eaten all up and a big cold glass of milk swallowed, Kimmy and Sissy felt a bit sleepy. Mommy helped them climb onto their beds and covered them up, each one with her own very most favorite blanket. They both yawned twice, stretched and fell sound asleep.
"Mommy, can I go back outside and play some more?" asked Tilly.
"Yes, Tilly, you may go back out, but be sure you stay in our own yard. Have a nice time! Off you go!" And Mommy gave Tilly a big kiss just for good measure. "Remember, stay in our yard," Mommy said as she went inside.
Tilly roamed around the back yard all by herself. She climbed up one of the trees and sat on a branch, looking all around. But she couldn't see anything very interesting. Just a bare back yard with nobody to play with. So she climbed back down and rolled her ball back and forth, back and forth, for awhile, but it wasn't much fun without someone else to catch it. Tilly thought it would be much more fun even if only Sissy were outside to play with- Sissy didn't quite understand about playing catch yet, and sometimes she grabbed the ball and ran away with it. Then Tilly and Kimmy had to chase her down to get the ball back, running, tumbling and giggling. Playing catch, Sissy-style, was a lot of fun- a whole lot more fun than being in the back yard all alone. Tilly sighed.
She was just beginning to think about going back inside to wait for her sisters when she heard someone say, "Psssssssssssssst! Psssssssssssssssssssst! Hey, little kitty! Wanna learn a new game?"
Well, now! Tilly LOVED games. And she recognized the cat that was talking to her. He lived two doors up the street, in a big green house. He was much bigger and older than Tilly was, and his name was Biff Cat.
But Tilly's Mommy had told her to stay in her own yard, so Tilly said, "I'd like to learn a new game, but I can't go out of my yard."
"Why not?" asked Biff Cat.
"My Mommy says," replied Tilly.
"Oh, pooh, your Mommy won't care if you come with ME! It'll be okay, just come along! We'll have such a good time! Come on, don't be a scaredy-cat!"
"I better not," said Tilly. "My Mommy said..."
"So are you a little bitty baby kitty? Can't do anything but what your mommy says? I thought you were the biggest kitty, but maybe I was wrong- you must be the baby after all!" And Biff Cat looked at Tilly like she was the littlest, scaredy-est kitty he had ever seen.
"Come on, just come with me- I'll bet your Mommy won't even know you're out of the yard! It'll be alright, just come ON!"
Well, Tilly didn't hardly know what to do. Mommy had said to stay in the yard, and Tilly thought she probably better do what Mommy said, but it was so exciting to have someone older stop to talk to her! Older kitties almost NEVER talked to Tilly, because she was just a little kitty. It made her feel grown-up and important to have someone like Biff ask her to go somewhere with him. She didn't want Biff Cat to think she was a baby kitty, because of course she was the oldest one, but she didn't want to disobey Mommy Kitty, either. And she did want to learn a new game...
So what do you think Tilly did?
What would YOU have done?
Would you.... Run back inside and tell Mommy?
Would you.... Stay in the yard?
Would you.... Go with Biff Cat?
Has anyone ever told YOU to disobey your parents?
Catalogue Information
