This chapter broadly examines how we theorise and intervene in the lives of women who have experienced child sexual abuse. The author uses a reflexive discourse analytic approach in examining some of her previous clinical psychology practice where she wrote psychological reports for the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation scheme to support compensation claims by women who had experienced rape and sexual abuse. The examination of some of the professional psychology documents the author wrote serves as an illustrative case study where she identifies and elaborates the tensions between using psychological expertise for 'victim' advocacy and feminist notions of empowerment. The nature of the psychological work the author did is described, along with the context in which it occurred. Two separate feminist readings of this work, a 'clinical psychology' reading and 'post-structuralist' reading, are presented. The author concludes with a third feminist reading, a 'critical psychology' perspective, which attempts to take into account and weigh up against each other the more clear-cut 'pro' and 'con' interpretations of clinical psychology and post-structuralist view point.

In P. Reavey & S. Warner (Eds.)., New feminist stories of child sexual abuse : sexual scripts and dangerous dialogues