There are gaps in knowledge of the most effective clinical approaches for avoiding creation of pseudo-memories and for enhancing the conditions under which actual events of childhood sexual abuse can be remembered. Future research and training are needed to assist clinicians so that they neither inadvertently create pseudo-memories nor inadequately attend to reported memories of childhood sexual abuse. Given the present state of our understanding, there is no method, absent corroborative evidence, for determining absolute differences between actual and pseudo-memories. Therefore, a therapist does not impose quick explanations or solutions. Therapy is collaborative and not something that is ''done to'' the patient.
Therapeutic strategy is based on evaluation of individual needs and symptoms.
While exploration of a patient's relationship with his or her family and other people important in his or her past may be of value in therapy, a competent therapist will not insist that progress depends on confronting someone, severing relationships, or bringing a lawsuit, nor will a competent therapist prevent exploration of those options. If the goal entering therapy is to work on issues associated with childhood sexual abuse, it is important to question the therapist's expertise, training or experience in working with these issues. In those emerging areas in which generally recognized standards for preparatory training do not yet exist, psychologists nevertheless take reasonable steps to ensure the competence of their work, and to protect patients, clients, students, research participants, and others from harm. For education and training, the panel suggests that all graduate training programs in psychology include education and training on victimization and trauma, memory and family violence, including child sexual abuse, and that professional psychology programs include education and training in the mechanics of memory processes and therapeutic approaches for working with adult survivors of childhood trauma. The reviews of the literature on trauma and memory, on which the panel based its conclusions and recommendations were conducted by the clinicians and the research scientists separately.