Gratitude practices have strong research support for sexual abuse — but the how matters enormously. Done wrong, gratitude exercises can feel dismissive; done right, they're genuinely transformative.
How Gratitude Helps Sexual Abuse
- Gratitude shifts attention away from threat-focused processing driving sexual abuse
- Gratitude activates the brain's reward systems, counteracting anhedonia in sexual abuse
- Gratitude strengthens social connections (a primary buffer against sexual abuse)
- Regular gratitude practice builds an attentional set toward positive experiences
Gratitude Practices That Work for Sexual Abuse
Specificity over quantity: 'I'm grateful for the way my friend laughed today' beats 'I'm grateful for my friends'
Three good things (with why): Write three specific positive events daily and why they happened
Gratitude letters: Write and ideally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who helped you — powerful one-time intervention for sexual abuse
Gratitude Mistakes in Sexual Abuse
Using gratitude to bypass or deny sexual abuse ('I shouldn't feel this way, I have so much') is toxic positivity. Gratitude works alongside acknowledging sexual abuse, not instead of it.