I was born to a young single mom. My biological father was a married man with seven children who had presented himself as a single man. When I was five, my mother married Frank, who had a drinking issue. Frank was abusive and sadistic. The abuse started immediately. Frank was unemployed when I was about […]
Nothing was great about school. Or home. My parents did not get along. They fought all the time. The constant bullying started in kindergarten. I was a gifted, chubby kid and my classmates made fun of how smart I was. They would shoot staples from mechanical pencils and aim them at my eyes, saying. You’re […]
Did you know that 1 in 5 women is a target of sexual assault while in college? It is no understatement that sexual assault continues to be a very serious issue at every single college and university campus in Ontario, Canada. One woman in five experiences sexual assault while attending a post-secondary institution. A 2015 […]
In early September 2019, I heard Mo Rocca interview TV and Hollywood Star Angie Dickinson on CBS Sunday Morning. At the end of the conversation, he asked what she thought of the #MeToo movement. Her response caught me off guard. In a chilly tone of voice, she said, “I hate it. It’s all out of […]
The girls – now women – who have come forth to tell their story of survival are now living from a sense of purpose. They are changing their life stories. Taking the bad things that happened in their young lives and reinterpreting, rewriting their personal narratives in a more positive frame. In doing so, they […]
It takes a long time to start the healing process. I will never heal. There are pieces from me that can never be put back together. ~ Virginia Roberts Giuffre, victim of Jeffrey Epstein from age 16 I understand that a victim of sexual abuse would feel this way. Even after years of traditional […]
Sexual abuse of girls and boys results in long-term psychological trauma. And I can tell you that, unless treated, the emotional scars can last a lifetime. My clients include women who in their child or teen years were sexually molested or initiated into sex games by their father, an older sibling or relative, neighbor or […]
My friend “Emily” – a friend from university days – was visiting this past weekend. It was way past midnight. We had been talking for hours. And we were on our second or third glass of wine. She asked what I was up to these days. When I mentioned that I was writing this series […]
“I will never understand why it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist.” ~ Anonymous I f we have any major unresolved emotional traumas . . . any physical, emotional or sexual abuse in our past. Anything we would never want to share with anyone (even a therapist) . . . […]
My observations about trauma and abuse are not pure projection on my part. They are not just thoughts inspired by my clients’ stories. I experienced numerous traumas in my younger years . . . from alcohol-infused childhood violence, to being threatened at knife point (by my father-in-law, no less; now there’s another story . . […]