#MM09 – Q&A Mondays with Moshe Lang: Sexual Abuse, and Depressed Therapist
This is Episode 9 of the Q and A series with psychologist Moshe Lang. Moshe is one of Australia’s best known family therapists, a renowned author and teacher. He has been practicing psychotherapy for over 52 years and is insatiably curious, and wonderfully wise.
This weeks questions are WAWID listeners are:
1) What should a psychologist do if they experiencing issues (e.g. depression) that they speak to their clients about? If the self-implemented strategies that would be employed by a possible treating psychologist have not helped, what then? Pete (Australia)
2) Moshe, have you seen many adult survivors of family csa (sexual abuse) disclose this to their family and if so what have you seen unfold. What do you advise those victims to do if they have always wanted to tell someone who they love. There may be implications and consequences. Any advice would be most appreciated. Jane (Victoria)
More info on Moshe
Moshe Lang was born in Israel and migrated to Australia in 1961. He studied psychology at the University of Melbourne and is currently the Director of the Williams Road Psychotherapy Centre.
Between 1965 and 1979 Moshe was the senior psychologist at the Bouverie Clinic and Director of Training. In 1975, during a sabbatical, he worked in Ramat-Chen Mental Health Clinic in Israel. In 1979, he founded Williams Road Family Therapy Centre, the first independent family therapy centre in Australia. He remained involved with the Centre until 2012.
Moshe was the Foundation President of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (1979-1988), and from 1982 to 1984 was President of the Victorian Association of Family Therapists (now known as Australian Association of Family Therapy). He is a Life Member of the Australian Association of Family Therapy (1992).
Moshe has co-authored a variety of books based on his therapeutic work that are highly regarded and have been extensively reviewed and translated to Hebrew and French. More recently he released a highly praised DVD titled Behind Closed Doors, providing the viewers, both professional and general public alike, with the opportunity to see him at work.
Recommended Resources
To learn more about Moshe visit to his website – http://moshelang.com.au
Books:
- Corrupting the Young and Other Stories of a Family Therapist – Moshe Lang
- Resilience: Stories of a Family Therapist – Moshe Lang (with Tesse Lang)
- A Family in Therapy and The Answer Within – Moshe Lang (with Peter McCallum)
- Behind Closed Doors, (DVD) – Moshe Lang doing couples therapy!
Feedback and Comments
Post your question for Moshe under this episode or send me an email! Leave us a comment or some feedback about the episode, we’d love to hear from you!
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Thank you Moshe and Amy for your very thorough answer and for opening this up to further comments/feedback. It was useful to hear what you both though on the matter, which is unfortunately a very common human experience within family systems.
Further complications: If the perpetrator has deceased and the family all idealise him, not knowing what has happened, if the victim has a close relationship with their parent, who is the child of the perpetrator, then obviously their positive relationship is at risk if the truth comes out. The person themselves seems to know that honesty is best and that is why they feel the need to “tell.” Your comment about isolation Moshe rings true as this person has been isolating themselves more and more from their overseas family and it is beginning to feel harder for them to find a sense of connection with this “secret” being the major barrier.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for the feedback and comment. Glad you found the conversation helpful. I’ve passed your comment onto Moshe, so let’s see what he comes back with!
Amy