“It isn’t what you think. The most damaging aspect of child sexual abuse isn’t the abuse. It’s what the abuse does to you emotionally and psychologically. It’s the hidden burden you had to carry for too long. It’s that shameful secret. Here’s how it works. My stepfather was a great guy. He was nice to…
“Survivors of abuse often live a life plagued with scarcity. We were taught at a young age that we weren’t enough, there wasn’t enough and life would not provide enough for us in the future. When we suffer financial abuse or trafficking, things are often worse. We can believe we have a finite worth, we…
“When Gayathri Keerthana, a Coimbatorebased child counsellor, was talking to a group of Class 6 children about good touch and bad touch, one of the girls broke into tears. She said she was being abused by her father’s friends for a long time. This is not an isolated case. A study conducted by Aram Foundation,…
This TED talk by Debra Jarvis is about being a cancer survivor, but I think the ideas presented have a lot to offer for abuse survivors as well. Sometimes it’s easier to stay a “survivor”, and allow that to be an excuse for our behavior, or to allow other people to define what being a…
“Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when…
“When we build a bridge of communication between our children and us they know they have our support. They know they can run to us and share the good, the difficult, and the scary things they will encounter in this life. Because we have cultivated a relationship with them that they can count on.” As…
