Being delivered: spirituality in survivors of sexual violence.

A theoretical framework explaining how survivors of sexual violence use spirituality to respond to or recover from sexual violence is presented. Data were drawn from open-ended interviews of 27 women and 23 men who participated in a larger, ongoing study of women's and men's responses to sexual violence. Grounded theory methodology was used to develop the core category of Being Delivered, reflecting the participants' experiences of being rescued, saved, or set free from the effects of sexual violence by a spiritual being or power. The theoretical framework describing Being Delivered is composed of three dimensions: Spiritual Connection, Spiritual Journey, and Spiritual Transformation. The framework can be used by clinicians to guide discussions of spirituality and healing with survivors of sexual violence.