ONE IN SIX

Stagg presents a clinical and personal exploration of living through and dealing with childhood sexual trauma.

In his brief, powerful nonfiction debut, the author draws on his experience as a psychotherapist and chaplain for the emergency, intensive care, and burn units of a major hospital to discuss male childhood sexual abuse, various ways to recognize it, and methods for dealing with the mental and emotional fallout. He assures his readers that, despite all of that formidable experience, he’s never once met the survivor of a car crash or other trauma who has a clear memory of what happened. Stagg reports that sexual abuse of young boys happens in greater percentages than most people would expect: A survey by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children reported that most of this abuse is perpetrated by women, including, in roughly 36 percent of cases, by mothers (the author notes that this is the same rate at which young girls experience abuse from their fathers or stepfathers). And yet, the resources for men seem far less developed; indeed, society tends to ignore the problem. “There is no #MeToo movement for men,” Stagg writes. “We hear about institutional abuse of boys in the news, true, but many boys suffer far more serious abuse at home and never talk about it.” In calm, measured tones filled with compassion, the author seeks to give those men—many of whom have entirely suppressed the memories what happened to them—both the vocabulary to describe their experience and the tools to deal with it. He discusses the nature of flashbacks and memory triggers as well as the importance of “grounding” against these reactions, all explained against the backdrop of both the author’s own story and those representing many of his patients. Every survivor of childhood sexual abuse will profit from reading this sane and sympathetic book.

An empathetic and solution-oriented guide to dealing with the long-term trauma of childhood abuse.