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Healing has been and continues to be an important journey for both of us. Even though we’ve had our own respective paths and processes, we’ve seen some common patterns and similarities.
Trauma takes place in multiple contexts, but for our thesis, we have chosen to work on healing from sexual trauma.
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Sexual violence is a global issue that has recently been gaining more public attention.
In the United States, 1 in every 5 women faces some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.
That leaves many sexual violence survivors struggling to make sense of their experience and navigate a long journey of healing.
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We want to work with survivors to better understand and support their long term recovery and healing needs.
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Through our secondary research we have found that an important factor in healing is social support however this is often missing from formal crisis care models. Social support is important for every stage in life however it is vital when coping with a traumatic event.
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This quote says:
“The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections. Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation.
Excerpt From: Herman, Judith L.; “. dTrauma and Recovery.”
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From our research and interviews with experts in this field, one of our main insights is that American society emphasises on individualism and efficiency which in turn influences the perception of healing as being linear and something that one can do by themselves and get over with.
But healing from sexual trauma is long-term, layered, unique and is often met with countless twists and turns.
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Our Next Steps are:
Explore existing support services for sexual violence survivors.
Wrap around care
Network based approach
People:
TIA Clinic
Justine
Umila Singh
Organisations:
The Purple Flower
The Well
Femden
Maven - https://www.mavenclinic.com/
Ikarus
Tia Clinic
One Future Collective (India)
Co-survivors:
Connect https://www.connectnyc.org/
Podcast:
The Healing Justice Podcast
Femtech Insider
Reading:
Community Based Human Centered Design
How We Get Free
Beyond Survival
We Want To Do More Than Survive
She Said By Jodi Cantor
Care Work- Trauma Informed Care Practices
Training:
ThriveNYC Mental Health First Aid Training
Adults 8 hrs training - March 27
Find a community of sexual violence survivors and co-survivors.
Study alternative models / organising models of community support - Historic and Contemporary
Combahee River Collective
In Our Own Voice
Black Panthers
Because existing relationships are built on a foundation of trust Supportive relationships are essential to the long term care and healing of survivors because
Assumption:
Survivors desire support from their personal relationships
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