As I worked with adult survivors of sexual abuse and other violence, particularly in their early years of life, I became aware of a common theme of guilt feelings being held by these clients. 

Such feelings of, in some way, having caused or being responsible for the abuse often proved to be very resistant to effective change. Whilst the  client agreed that they were not responsible for the abuse (cognitively, at least) they continued to hold on to a low self image which focussed on  somehow having contributed or caused the abuse.  

In 1996 I developed a different approach which over the past three years has proven effective in enabling the client  to remove these guilt beliefs in one session, and to progress on to effective re-empowerment. Feedback from the clients reveals that the results continue to be effective over the long term.

In brief, the process utilises a courtroom role play with the client being the Magistrate and the therapist being the Prosecutor  and Defence . 

This process has the advantage of not requiring the client to  discuss more than general information of the event. This reduces the trauma experienced by the client and allows  healing  even where the event is partially blocked  by the client.

The steps are as follows:

1. Client opens feelings of guilt during a session.
2. Therapist elicits the source of the guilt feelings in general detail (e.g. age of victim and aggressor, type of assault, period of assault, resultant behaviour patterns, naming of guilt. General acknowledgment of being guilty is sufficient) to enable dramatisation of situation with reasonable accuracy of event/s. Client, ”I was sexually abused by my father when I was (x years old) and it went on for several years. I was too frightened to tell anyone. I felt it was my fault. Since then I have sex but I don’t feel right about it. I always feel guilty.” Therapist "Perhaps you feel you are trying to get love in the only way you know how?" Client, "Yes that’s right. I hadn’t thought of it that way." Therapist, “How long have you felt guilty?” Client “It seems like all my life. I should have stopped my father.”
3. Discuss with client the court setting to ensure client has some knowledge of how a court looks and is conducted. This needs to be kept very simple to prevent content overload confusing the issue. Leave it up to the client to fill in the detail. 

Therapist,  “There is something I would like to try and do with you today. Have you ever been in a court room, or perhaps seen a court on the television?” (for example).
4. Tell the client that you are going to hold a trial and that the client is to be the magistrate with you being the prosecutor and the defence.

Therapist  "I would like to have a trial and for you to be the Magistrate, because I know you will give me an honest decision. Okay?”
5. Induce trance. I have found that a spontaneous trance is readily achieved by the client if the clients eyes are closed as you carry out the role play. This eliminates the need for lengthy inductions with “resistant” clients. Give the reason for eye closure as enabling more complete focus on what the therapist is saying by reducing the information input from the senses.
6. Prosecution address to the magistrate. Play up the aspect of client guilt and low moral character but keep it short, factual and do not over do the guilt aspect, present it as obvious guilt.

“Your worship we have here today a matter for your decision. The defendant in this instance is charged with being promiscuous in that she knowingly and wilfully behaves in a manner which no nice person would. In this instance the prosecution relies entirely on the defendants own admissions that she has  had numerous sexual partners over many years, her own father being one, and she did nothing to stop it. I submit that your worship can only find this person guilty of being a morally corrupt person, guilty as charged. That is the evidence for the prosecution” 
7. Defence address. Here there is a need to “go over the top” with describing the innocence of the victim and the guilt of the perpetrator, suggesting to the Magistrate that the only possible verdict is not guilty. 

“Your Worship I appear for the defence. The defence does not challenge the facts as outlined by the prosecutor, however, there are other facts of which your worship has not been informed. My client as a child was sexually abused by her father. Whilst she did not like what happened to her she was unable to stop it. What power does a (x) year old have over a fully grown adult? What does a child know about sex? It is the adult, I submit, who has all the power. It is the adult who is gaining sexual gratification from the abuse of a poor innocent child. A child who learns that the only way for her to get the love she so desperately needs is to offer her body for abuse by those from whom she just wants love and caring . So as she grows, she still desperately seeks one to love her for herself but the only way she knows to gain that love is to degrade herself in her own eyes and to buy that love in the only way she knows how. Your Worship my client is not guilty of anything other than wanting to be loved , something we all want and need. She is the innocent victim of people who used her innocence for their own greedy ends. It is her abusers who carry the burden of guilt, not my poor abused client.  Your worship I respectfully submit that you can only find in favour of my client.
I submit that my client is not, and never was, guilty and I ask that you return the only possible verdict, that of NOT GUILTY.”
8. Ask the Magistrate for a verdict and when the verdict has been reached for the client to open eyes and tell you the verdict.

“Your Worship please now consider your verdict and when you have reached your decision let yourself gently and peacefully return to full awareness, open your eyes and tell me your verdict” (Occasionally the verdict will be spoken very softly, require the client to repeat it, as you did not hear it, until it is loud and clear. In the three years I have been using this process I have not yet had a guilty verdict.
9. Do not dwell on the verdict but go on to ego enhancement.

NOTE: The examples given here are not drawn from any particular case but are representative of the situations presented and responses given. Each situation  is different and the “facts” presented are unique to each situation.