Author event: Toby Ingham Presents ‘A Guilty Victim’
A book Launch and Q&A with Toby Ingham, author of 'A Guilty Victim: Recovering Creativity After Trauma and Abuse'.
Date: 12/06/2025 Time: 18:00 -19:30 Venue: Online Via Zoom
Event Details
Description
In this interactive presentation I will discuss the development of my case study, A Guilty Victim (Karnac, March 2025), starting with the work from which the book would later develop. The book tells the true story of an English boy’s recovery from grooming and sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school in Ireland in the 1970s. It is an account of psychotherapy with an adult survivor, written with the client’s full consent.
When I first met William, he was 54 years old and battling with feelings of worthlessness and depression. He had been suicidal at earlier periods in his life and came to see me because he had concerns that those feelings were returning. We worked together for several years and in that time, we began to see how he had internalised a critical and aggressive attitude which picked on and bullied what might be thought of as his true self. Any attempt to express himself creatively was met with fierce prohibition. William could do things for other people but not for himself.
The complex nature of grooming and abuse is often simplified by those who do not understand it and are left wondering why the victim allowed it to happen. A Guilty Victim challenges that understanding and explains how and why abuse continues and the impact it leaves on the victim’s life. It explains that we remain trapped in situations not because there is something wrong with us, but because of things that have happened to us.
Towards the end of our work William created a set of images, a timeline of his life, and he suggested that I write text to go with them. The case study is a collaboration, and I will discuss why I came to see that as the right approach to writing about clinical work.
About the speaker
Toby Ingham is a BPC & UKCP registered psychotherapist & supervisor, and member of The British Psychotherapy Foundation. He trained in the NHS at St Barts’ Hospital, and the Homerton Hospital in London. He has 25 years of clinical experience.
*If you are a psychotherapist or counsellor residing in an active conflict zone, you are eligible to attend this event free of charge (regardless of whether you are a bpf member or not). Please email membership@bpf-psychotherapy to enquire about a ticket.