Please answer the following:

You recently received an intake file for a client the initial note contains the following information: Clients are a married couple seeking support due to disruption to their marriage, particularly as relating to intimacy. Wife was raped by a stranger in a parking garage after a late night at work one year ago.

The rapist has not been apprehended, and wife is hypervigilant, presenting a smorgasbord of PTSD symptoms (for which she is receiving individual treatment). Wife reports her husband has been very supportive, but both clients are very upset by their lack of a sexual relationship, and wife is extremely ambivalent about entering into one in the foreseeable future.

Clients are strongly considering a separation, but wife is terrified to be alone at night and neither wants to end the marriage, both express a desire for things to go back to the way they were before.

What could (or should) someone do after the rape of his/her partner? What could (or should) the victim do, regarding the relationship? What do you think that the couple in the above scenario should do? How might a social worker begin work with this couple?

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