Beyond MeToo: Healing the Wounds of Sexual Trauma

Sexual Healing Affirmations

In this episode, Molly shares a meditation originally released on the podcast “Meditations,” by her friend Gregory T. Obert in May of 2019. We are happy to share this recording here, where you’ll hear a set of sexual healing affirmations, ready by Molly and repeated several times in a loop. You may prefer to listen to this meditation in a quiet and private space to take them in. If you’d like to hear these same affirmations read by Gregory, you can find his podcast and look for the episode released on May 26, 2019 on the “Meditations” podcast by Gregory T. Obert.   -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!   Contact Sarah: www.theembodyconnection.com // sarah@theembodyconnection.com   Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com [molly@theembodyconnection.com]   -------------------------------------------- Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, content creation for Somatic based healers: https://www.jbaykan.com/ [https://www.jbaykan.com/]   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/ [https://www.davehiltebrand.com/]   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag [https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag]

Amy Dawn on Navigating the Criminal Justice System

In this episode, Molly interviews Amy Dawn about how she navigated the criminal justice system after deciding to press charges against the man who raped her. Some key highlights include: * How Amy found herself in a role reversal from criminal justice student to someone navigating the system, and the challenge she experienced coming to terms with being a rape survivor. * Her decision to report and then to pursue legal action. * Disclosure and allowing other people’s reactions to impact how we feel about ourselves and what happened to us. * Victim blaming, objectification, and dehumanization throughout the legal process. * The importance of her legal advocate throughout the legal process. * How the legal system’s way of poking holes in her character led to her questioning her very identity. * The awkwardness/injustice/irony of being a mere witness in a case about her own rape. * Her decision to leave the criminal justice world professionally. * Finding her voice and her authentic self.   Amy Dawn has a Master’s in Criminal Justice and Criminology but left that field behind following her own experience with sexual assault. She pivoted careers and now volunteers with Resilience as a medical advocate. Outside of her full-time day job, she also works as a photographer. She is passionate about using her experience to foster dialogue whether it be through writing, photography, or advocacy. In her spare time, you’ll usually find her with her best friend, her dog Addison, who she rescued from Paws, and when they are feeling ambitious, they love taking in foster dogs. -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes! Amy Dawn is putting together a currently untitled photography project around survivors. It’s meant to bring to light the magnitude of words during disclosures, to convey the impact of victim shaming, and to humanize survivors. Link here: https://www.amydawnphotography.com/open-call [https://www.amydawnphotography.com/open-call]   Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com [molly@theembodyconnection.com]   -------------------------------------------- Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, content creation for somatic based healers  https://www.jbaykan.com/ [https://www.jbaykan.com/]   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/ [https://www.davehiltebrand.com/]   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag [https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag]

Amy Collins--A Survivor of Things Meant to Break Her Spirit

In this episode Molly interviews Amy Collins, a survivor of things that were meant to break her spirit. Being honest with her past has helped her heal in so many beautiful ways. She believes in staying true to who she is and doing what’s best for her healing. In this interview, she shares her recent experience being in recovery from addiction, an eating disorder, and PTSD and the power of groups, among other things, in her relatively recently begun healing journey.   -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!   Contact Amy: truthbadassery@gmail.com [truthbadassery@gmail.com] Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com [molly@theembodyconnection.com] Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, content creation for somatic based healers: https://www.jbaykan.com/ [https://www.jbaykan.com/]   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/ [https://www.davehiltebrand.com/]   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag [https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag]

The Role of Touch in Healing from Sexual Trauma

“Many sexual trauma survivors went into a freeze state.. And so there’s this sense of ‘My body betrayed me, and I don’t want to be in this body, but I’m stuck here, so I’m going to do the best job I can to not be here.’ And that is the ultimate disconnection. So what we’re going for is to start to reconnect that, just a little bit at a time, maybe at first just with questions and guidance, and little by little, help you start to recognize that your body is an ally in this process of healing. And in fact, because it was the site of the crime, it’s also the site of immense healing. And until you can actually feel that, there are things you can’t heal. There are things you can’t heal with words because words weren’t what injured you.”   In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan share their perspective on the role of touch in healing from sexual trauma. Some of the themes they explore are: * The power of safe touch. * Doing TO the body or making the body DO versus feeling, experiencing, and listening to the body with genuine curiosity. * The body as key to healing injuries that were (and continue to be) experienced in the body. * Feeling betrayed by the body’s response to assault or violation. * Feeling subtle sensations again (or for the first time) after only being able to feel extreme sensations or numbing out or being hypervigilant - or any combination of the aforementioned strategic adaptations.    “People who are terrified need to get a sense of where their bodies are in space and of their boundaries.  Firm and reassuring touch lets them know where those boundaries are: what’s outside them, where their bodies end. They discover they do not need to constantly wonder who and where they are. They discover their body is solid and they do not have to constantly be on guard. Touch lets them know they are safe.” ~Bessel Van Der Kolk -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!   Contact Sarah: www.theembodyconnection.com // sarah@theembodyconnection.com   Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com [molly@theembodyconnection.com]   Book: The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk   -------------------------------------------- Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, content creation for somatic based healers: https://www.jbaykan.com/ [https://www.jbaykan.com/]   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/ [https://www.davehiltebrand.com/]   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag [https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag]

Anne Jensen on religious & sexual abuse, disclosure, and healing intimacy

“I’m still struggling with ‘my body is my own’... It really does make me angry because it feels like I’m missing out on this wonderful thing that you experience with a partner.”   In this episode, Molly interviews Anne Jensen, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse within a religious cult, shares her journey over the past several years after disclosing the abuse to her family. She discusses how the process of disclosing was retraumatizing for her, how she started doing the true work of healing when she was truly ready, the role of religion & purity culture in her silencing and disempowerment, and her ongoing struggles with intimacy.   Anne was born and raised in a non-denominational Christian cult in Ontario, Canada, where she endured years of sexual, emotional, and religious abuse. After her family moved out of the community, she spent her teenage years and early twenties in evangelicalism trying desperately to find some kind of healing. She stayed silent about the abuse until she was forced to reveal it in 2015. Since then she has left religion and fully committed herself to her own healing journey which has included talk therapy, yoga, meditation, and medication. She started sharing her story on social media in the hopes that it would encourage other survivors and make them feel less alone. Since she spent so many years suffering in silence, she has made it her mission to use her voice to advocate for survivors of both sexual and religious abuse. She is currently writing her memoir and hopes to get it published one day.   -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!   Contact Anne: annemargaretjensen@gmail.com Twitter: @annemargaretj IG: @annemargaretj   Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com [molly@theembodyconnection.com]   -------------------------------------------- Special thanks to:   Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/ [https://www.jbaykan.com/]   Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/ [https://www.davehiltebrand.com/]   Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag [https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag]