Sexual Assault Advocate Training Manual - Texas Association ...

S E X U A L A S S A U L T A D V O C A T E T R A I N I N G M A N U A L
common symptoms of sexual abuse. But while hope was not initially
accessible, endurance was available. By endurance, I am talking about the
simple act of willing oneself to act “ as if” you believe a positive future is
possible, a message to the self that sounds something like, “ I will stay
alive; I WILL get through this somehow, even if I don’t know how right
now.” It is perhaps more an act of will than a belief. Fortunately,
endurance can lead eventually to hope, as it did for me. But the survivor
has to endure long enough to find that hope.
Some survivors have described the work required to overcome the effects of
sexual abuse/ assault as a kind of Shamanic Journey. “ In the Shamanic
tradition, a person suffers a terrible trauma and survives it, although inevitably
the process of survival requires every ounce of inner strength he or she can
summon. Once the trauma is over, the act of moving beyond the trauma,
coming to terms with it, healing from it, is the vehicle for becoming personally
gifted and exceptional - in this case resulting in the role of …Healer. Sexual
abuse survivors are healers, too, initially of themselves, by necessity, and later,
sometimes of others too” (Ibid.).
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