Have you experienced sexual abuse trauma that is stopping you from living a fulfilling life?

• Do you experience nightmares or flashbacks of certain events?
• Do you find yourself avoiding certain people, places, or things?
• Do you feel fear, shame, humiliation, guilt around what happened?
• Do you have a hard time trusting people?

Experiencing sexual abuse can be devastating and leave you feeling lost, alone, and scared.

Many people who experience sexual abuse have a hard time processing what happened and all the emotions that come with it. Their sense of safety quickly fades, and they can find it hard to get back to living their “normal” life. Things that once seemed routine and easy can suddenly be challenging to do. It’s also not uncommon for little things to trigger memories and cause you to have panic or anxiety attacks. You don’t always know what your triggers are, which makes it worse because you don’t even know what to avoid. You can’t help but worry that those disturbing events could happen again. Instead of focusing on living and enjoying life, you become consumed with fear, worry, anxiety, and life can seem miserable. Feeling like you can’t overcome these emotions or the pain you feel can lead you to feel hopeless.

You’re Not alone

According to statistics, over 40% of women in the US have encountered sexual violence. Sexual assault is any sexual activity or contact that happens without the consent of both people. It can take form in many different ways, including sexual harassment, unwanted touching, childhood abuse, and of course, rape.

No matter the type of sexual violence you may have experienced, the one thing that is important to remember is, it’s not your fault. After experiencing sexual abuse, it can feel lonely, even if you have a support system. You may still feel like no one truly understands what you’ve gone through, and it can be hard opening up about what happened or trying to explain the roller coaster of emotions you may be feeling. This sense of loneliness can cause you to distance and isolate yourself from your loved ones and shut down from the rest of the world. Something this traumatizing can be hard to process, and learning how to live life beyond this event can be difficult.

Many victims of sexual abuse wonder what they could have done differently to prevent it or feel as though they must have played a role in why it occurred – and it’s not true. Victims of sexual abuse and assault may find themselves doing things like:

• Minimizing the assault or attack by thinking that their abuse was not as bad as someone else. 
• Denying that it actually happened or that they’re fine as  a way to try to move past it
• Isolating themselves because they feel that they do not deserve support or that people will not want to be their friends

The effects of the trauma can be short-term or last long after the sexual assault or rape. While this may provide some temporary relief, these coping strategies will not provide the long term healing and peace of mind that you’ve been longing for. They may relieve you of your anxiety, stress, and hopelessness for a small amount of time, if at all. The good news is that with the help of a compassionate, encouraging, and experienced counselor, you can get help with navigating your experiences and learn tools to help you heal and move forward.

Sexual Abuse Trauma Therapy Can Help You Heal And Move Forward

Sexual assault is a traumatizing event that can leave a negative lasting impact on your life if not addressed properly. The JRACC team of therapists specializes in helping victims of sexual assault build the strength and resilience they need to move forward. We combine our extensive training on treating trauma with our passion for seeing you heal to provide you with a thorough support system. As tough as it may seem now, trauma-sensitive care can help you address your experience and figure out how you can find the peace you’ve been missing.

Our approach includes a trauma-informed perspective, which ultimately means your safety is at the forefront in all of our sessions. We want to make sure you feel safe physically and emotionally since discussing and processing trauma can be very triggering. Our office is a safe space for you to express your thoughts without fear of judgment, and we will never ask you to do anything that you don’t feel comfortable doing or discuss things that you don’t feel comfortable sharing. We want to make sure that you feel heard, seen and that you can trust us.

In our sessions, we will explore your current coping methods and how they make sense from a survival perspective based on trauma and work collaboratively to build healthier ways of coping and healing from what happened. We want to help you recognize and embrace the idea that your trauma does not have to control or define you.  

But You May Still Have Questions About Sexual Abuse Trauma

I Think Counseling Could Help, But I’ve Heard That It  Can Be Expensive?

Keeping your feelings bottled up can do more harm than good. As much as you may try to forget this experience or push it to the back of your mind, it will still show up and impact you. Rather than trying to keep everything bottled up, we encourage you to be open to talking about it so we can help you process it and come up with coping strategies that can help you heal. You may never forget what happened, but that doesn’t mean it has to control your life moving forward.

What if I don’t feel comfortable talking about my experience? 

We understand that you’ve experienced something very traumatic, and reliving it or discussing it may be hard to do. In our sessions, we won’t ask you to do more than you are comfortable with. We can move at your own pace. We want you to remember that our goal is to make you feel safe both physically and emotionally with us.  As our sessions progress, we hope you feel more comfortable opening up.

Do you accept insurance?

At JRACC, we accept various types of insurance, don’t hesitate to contact our office or check out our contact page to see if we accept yours.

You Can Find Peace Of Mind

If you would like to schedule an appointment or discuss any questions you may have regarding college counseling, we are available at 205-722-7294 or send us a message.