Psychosocial Therapy Regimes for Child Sexual Abuse Survivors From 9 Years to 17 Years During Covid-19 Era in Masvingo Urban

Child sexual abuse has become a child protection issue requiring closer attention to assist child sexual abuse services to overcome its effects. With its long and short-term effects, psychosocial therapy has been applied to the survivors as a way of curbing psychosocial problems. However, though psychosocial therapy has been offered before, the silence of the near dimension of the COVID-19 era has drawn attention to this study. The study had a goal to explore the psychosocial therapy regimes provided for child sexual abuse survivors aged 9 years -17 years during the COVID-19 era in Masvingo Urban. The study was purely qualitative and made use of a case study research design as it enabled a better understanding of the psychosocial therapy regimes provided for child sexual abuse survivors during the COVID-19 era specifically in Masvingo urban. The population of the study included child sexual abuse survivors and human services professionals from Masvingo Urban. The sample of the study involved 25 participants who were selected using purposive sampling. Interviews were employed to gather data for the study. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The majority of the study participants revealed that the effects of child sexual abuse include social, psychological, and emotional short and long-term challenges. The majorityof the interviewed participants revealed that counselling, family therapy, group therapy, narrative therapy, and play therapy are the most commonly used regimes for psychosocial therapy for victims of child sexual abuse. The study found that COVID-19 negatively impacted the provision of psychotherapy for survivors of child sexual abuse in Masvingo. There is a need for social services agencies to propose combined therapeutic ways which will be more effective especially when dealing with child sexual abuse survivors.