Becoming a dad has healing effect on child abuse victims

Becoming a dad can have a hugely healing effect on men who were sexually abused as children, according to new research.

It can also make them determined to be better fathers than they had themselves in terms of protecting their children from potential abusers.

Jean O’Brien, who has just completed her doctorate in counselling psychology at Trinity College Dublin, examined the experience of fatherhood from the perspectives of men who were sexually abused as children for her thesis, and presents her findings at the Psychological Society of Ireland annual conference which continues in Kilkenny today.