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Sexual Assault & Sexual Abuse

Kogan Counseling specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD, providing expert care for survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and other traumatic experiences.

Defining Sexual Assault

Sexual Assault is defined as any unwanted sexual act or behavior which is threatening, violent, forced, or coercive and to which a person has not given consent to or was not able to give consent. Sexual assault is most often used in reference to a single experience.

Sexual Coercion

Coercion is unwanted sexual activity that happens after someone is pressured, tricked, or forced in a nonphysical way.

  • Sexual contact with a child
  • Incest (sexual contact between family members)
  • Fondling or unwanted touching above or under clothes

Sexual Abuse

Often used in reference to a sexual act, as described above, committed against a child or adolescent or a vulnerable adult by someone in a position of power or authority/perceived authority.

Sexual abuse can occur between:

  • A child and an adult
  • A child and an older child
  • A patient and a doctor
  • A student and a teacher
  • A parishioner and a priest

Sexual Abuse most often (not always) involves sexually abusive acts over a longer period of time and incorporates grooming behaviors.