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Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences
South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. Experiencing rape frequently proposes substantial consequences on survivors’ physical, psychological and social wellbeing, which accentuates the importance of providing survivors with help, support, and protection. However, the scarce s...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Psychology
2020
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| _version_ | 1867614396692299776 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Vieweger, Maria |
| author2 | Boonzaier, Floretta |
| author_browse | Boonzaier, Floretta Vieweger, Maria |
| author_facet | Boonzaier, Floretta Vieweger, Maria |
| author_sort | Vieweger, Maria |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. Experiencing rape frequently proposes substantial consequences on survivors’ physical, psychological and social wellbeing, which accentuates the importance of providing survivors with help, support, and protection. However, the scarce studies examining survivors’ experiences with the support system indicate many flaws within the system, sometimes even resulting in further harm. This failure of governmental support systems stimulated an increasing manifestation of NGOs as providers of survivor support. It is consequently crucial to understand and evaluate the success of these services to fully understand the quality of available support. The objective of this study was to investigate women rape survivors’ post rape experiences and their journey and subsequent experiences with the counselling provided to them by the Cape Town based NGO Rape Crisis. Fifteen adult rape survivors were recruited via opportunity sampling and asked to participate in one hour long unstructured interviews. In line with the research topic and the research questions, an intersectional feminist paradigm was chosen for the theoretical framework and thematic narrative analysis was applied as the analytic approach. The analysis showed four themes relating to rape survivors’ narratives on post-rape challenges, namely; the silence and stigma that victimises survivors, the psychological effects of rape, help seeking as a last resort, and demystifying counselling. Additionally, five themes around survivors’ experiences of Rape Crisis counselling were established, namely; the value of a professional safe space, building a counsellor relationship, talking and listening, a collaborative effort to finding oneself, and sharing collective stories of pain. The findings highlight the need for more outreach and education efforts around rape, as well the importance for professional yet not too clinical psychological support which incorporates empowerment principles and focuses on help to self-help. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31801 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:51:23.076Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31801 Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences Vieweger, Maria Boonzaier, Floretta gender based violence rape trauma psychological support counselling narrative thematic analysis feminist research South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. Experiencing rape frequently proposes substantial consequences on survivors’ physical, psychological and social wellbeing, which accentuates the importance of providing survivors with help, support, and protection. However, the scarce studies examining survivors’ experiences with the support system indicate many flaws within the system, sometimes even resulting in further harm. This failure of governmental support systems stimulated an increasing manifestation of NGOs as providers of survivor support. It is consequently crucial to understand and evaluate the success of these services to fully understand the quality of available support. The objective of this study was to investigate women rape survivors’ post rape experiences and their journey and subsequent experiences with the counselling provided to them by the Cape Town based NGO Rape Crisis. Fifteen adult rape survivors were recruited via opportunity sampling and asked to participate in one hour long unstructured interviews. In line with the research topic and the research questions, an intersectional feminist paradigm was chosen for the theoretical framework and thematic narrative analysis was applied as the analytic approach. The analysis showed four themes relating to rape survivors’ narratives on post-rape challenges, namely; the silence and stigma that victimises survivors, the psychological effects of rape, help seeking as a last resort, and demystifying counselling. Additionally, five themes around survivors’ experiences of Rape Crisis counselling were established, namely; the value of a professional safe space, building a counsellor relationship, talking and listening, a collaborative effort to finding oneself, and sharing collective stories of pain. The findings highlight the need for more outreach and education efforts around rape, as well the importance for professional yet not too clinical psychological support which incorporates empowerment principles and focuses on help to self-help. 2020-05-06T11:08:13Z 2020-05-06T11:08:13Z 2019 2020-05-06T01:39:20Z Master Thesis Masters MA https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31801 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | gender based violence rape trauma psychological support counselling narrative thematic analysis feminist research Vieweger, Maria Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| title_full | Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| title_fullStr | Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| title_short | Women Rape Survivors Narratives of Psychological Support and Counselling Experiences |
| title_sort | women rape survivors narratives of psychological support and counselling experiences |
| topic | gender based violence rape trauma psychological support counselling narrative thematic analysis feminist research |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31801 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT viewegermaria womenrapesurvivorsnarrativesofpsychologicalsupportandcounsellingexperiences |