”WITHOUT HUMANITY AND EMPATHY YOU’LL HAVE TO WORK WITH SOMETHING ELSE” - COUNSELLORS’ EXPERIENCE OF TREATING YOUNG VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Sammanfattning: Although sexual abuse is a problem in all age groups, the group which is the most exposed is women between 16 and 24. Many of these youths, boys and girls, are contacting youth centres for support and help regarding sexual assault, mental illness and sexuality. Counsellors working at the youth centres treats youths with experience of sexual abuse in their daily work.This study’s purpose is to demonstrate the counsellor’s experience when meeting these young people. Issues concerned are how we talk about sexual abuse, which emotions are raised among the counsellors during these conversations and which of these emotions that the counsellors feel the need to hide in the conversation.  The study’s material is based on four different interviews with counsellors from youth centres. The questions are being analysed with help of Goffman’s sociological theory expound in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) and Hochschild’s theory of emotional labour. The results show that the counsellors focus a lot on reducing guilt and shame among the children and youths. The result also shows that the meeting causes strong and heavy emotions among the counsellors. Opinions about which emotions that are okay to show and not okay to show when taking care of the youths are diverged.