When Time Stood Still

When Time Stood Still, perhaps the first book that presents a "living picture" of the effective use of creative art therapy in treating child sexual abuse, will help professionals to better understand the uniqueness of this abuse, the resulting trauma, and the healing process. The therapeutic dialogue between Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel and Ziv Koren, a 36 year-old social worker, who was sexually abused by her uncle, from ages 6 till 16, is given, with Ziv's drawings of associations, narratives about the drawings, and Prof. Lev-Wiesel's analysis of the drawings' symbols. This full presentation enables the reader to dive into the therapeutic process and follow Ziv, as she moves from a state of dissociation and detachment from her past, to a full confrontation with her memories, and then finally to integrating her physical, emotional, and cognitive selves into one whole human being.

The second part of the book summarizes the current knowledge on the uniqueness of childhood sexual abuse, in particular, the 5 traumagenic constructs that Professor Lev-Wiesel introduced to the field: Soul's Homelessness, Captured in Time, Entrapped in Distorted Intimacy, Betrayal Entrapment, and Reenactment. Therapeutic principles for interventions are drawn, based on the constructs.

Professor Rachel Lev-Wiesel, PhD., founder and head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies & the director of The Emili Sagol CAT Research Center at the University of Haifa, has been a therapist helping survivors of child sexual abuse for over 30 years. She has published 130 scientific papers and chapters on trauma, child abuse, sexual abuse, and using drawings for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Ziv Koren, MA, is a social worker and art therapist at the unit for treatment of released prisoners in the Ministry of Social Welfare, in Israel.