Interview: Asking the right questions

Psychologist Dr Nina Burrowes talks to Lizzie Atkinson about her online video project that opens up the conversation on sexual abuse

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Nina’s first online video Why are sex offenders able to get away with it? heralds the beginning of an accessible and organic campaign that addresses the reality of sexual abuse, along with society’s attitudes and preconceptions – and most importantly, invites our response.

So Nina, with the project already making a real impact, what’s the background to it all?

To be honest, the main background is probably just my experience of meeting people in a social situation – of course someone asks you what you do for a living and when I give an answer, the phrase “sexual abuse” is in that answer.

And my experience has been that people normally meet that phrase initially with fear (and I think a genuine fear of sexual abuse is a sensible stance to have against it).

But then if I’m able to show my enthusiasm for the subject area and actually make it okay for them to ask me questions, we end up having a long and very interesting conversation. And I think they surprise themselves with how much they were actually curious and wanted to know.

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