What is Neglect?
Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to seriously damage their health or development. In pregnancy, this can happen as a result of maternal substance misuse. Neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to:
• provide adequate food, clothing and shelter, including excluding the child from home or abandoning them
• protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger
• ensure adequate supervision, including the use of inadequate care-givers
• ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.
It may also include neglecting or being unresponsive to a child's basic emotional needs
Learning new skills & hobbies
Working & parenting
What is Emotional Abuse?
Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child causing severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. Emotional abuse may involve:
• conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only because they meet the needs of another person
• imposing expectations that are inappropriate to the age or development of the child – eg, over-protecting the child, limiting their exploration and learning, preventing them from taking part in normal social interaction
• seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of someone else
• serious bullying which causes the child frequently to feel frightened or in danger
• Exploitation or corruption.
Childhood Abuse Survivor
The term child abuse describes a range of ways in which people, often known and trusted by the child harm children knowingly or by failing to act to prevent harm. Child abuse can be physical, emotional, sexual or neglect. In many cases, children are subjected to a combination of types of abuse. Child abuse can take place in the home, at school or anywhere else children spend their time. Some forms of abuse are obvious – for example, when an adult strikes out at a child in anger – but others are much more difficult for outsiders to notice. While some types of abuse are caused by someone doing something that harms the child, others are the result of neglect, of failing to take steps to keep children safe and well.
What is Physical Abuse?
A large-scale survey of young adults in the UK by the NSPCC showed that seven per cent had, as children, suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of parents or carers. This was defined as violence causing injury or occurring regularly throughout childhood. Physical abuse may involve: hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. And a parent or carer fabricating the symptoms of, or deliberately inducing, illness in a child.
Effects of Child Abuse in Adulthood
Many survivors comment that the emotional consequences are far more severe than the physical effects of abuse.
• behavioural problems. Depression, anxiety, trouble sleeping, drug and alcohol problems, sexual difficulties such as fear of sex or intimacy, indiscriminate multiple sex partners or difficulty in reaching orgasm.
• emotional problems. Low self esteem, "damaged goods" syndrome (i.e. negative body image due to self-blame. This may be intensified if physical pain was experienced during the abusive incidents), an underlying sense of guilt, anger or loss.
• mental health problems "Flashbacks" and/or panic attacks, dissociation from feeling, suicide or other self-harm, in extreme cases, death. Any kinds of mental disorders.
• relationship difficulties Social isolation, relationship problems such as an inability to trust, poor social skills or a reluctance to disclose details about themselves, parenting problems such as fear of being a bad parent, or fear of abusing the child or being overprotective.
Making your appointment
You can start your healing process now by making and appointment for two sessions at a time every week or twice a month. Please go to Bookings to leave your details and to proceed with your secure payment, I will contact you as promptly.
If you would like to improve other aspects of your life which are not covered in our programmes please contact Counselling for Women. Telephone counselling for women is also available.
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