Child abuse linked to faith or belief: an important issue for counselling practice.

Child abuse linked to faith or belief (CALFB) is not a recent phenomenon; nor specific to any given culture or faith. This paper presents current work which articulates counsellors' understanding, experience and training needs around CALFB. An online survey collected data from participants, 79 of whom identified themselves as counsellors. Seventy-nine per cent of these counsellors stated that they had heard of the term CALFB. Sixty-six per cent were confident that they understood the term. However, only 46% were confident they could identify indicators with 54% being 'confident' to respond. Just 34% of the counsellors had received specific training on CALFB. It is argued here that awareness raising and training around the issues of CALFB are important to include in counsellor training courses and also as Continuous Professional Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]