As a member of a Foster Care Review Board, I listen as parents whose children have been removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect explain how much they love their children and that there was no way they'd ever abused them. They point to smiling pictures of their beautiful children as proof of their stellar parenting.

Survivors of child abuse take different approaches to their handling of, or lack of, their personal experiences. Some survivors want to shut out their bad memories and never talk about those experiences again. Some talk a little and still struggle with their current afflictions, which they likely have as a result of the child abuse they endured on a regular basis. Some feel an overwhelming need to somehow make sense of the abuse and make it “mean” something.