Move towards the healing you long for.
Counseling for Sexual Abuse Recovery
Online Trauma Therapy throughout Alabama and Florida | IFS | EMDR | Story Work
Have you experienced sexual harm that has left you with lasting shame?
Our sexuality is one of the most sacred and glorious aspects of who we are. Yet, so many have experienced harm and abuse in this category of their identity.
It can be so difficult to hold the shame, confusion, and isolation that is created by sexual abuse. I work to empower my clients by engaging their stories and experiences of sexual harm, reclaim what it means for them to be a sexual being, and work to reprocess and metabolize the pain of their harm and the ways it has shaped them sexually.
Let’s safely engage the places of pain and confusion around your sexual story…then move towards who you are meant to be as a sexual being.
In my years of clinical experience, I have sat with and held space for countless individuals who have struggled with some degree of sexual harm. Sexual abuse is on a spectrum and can range from being very subtle and covert to horrific and violent.
Whatever your story, I consider it a privilege to sit with individuals who have known this type of harm and have experienced the lasting effects of sexual abuse including: shame, confusion, body insecurity, patterns of toxic and abusive relationships, hatred for arousal, and so much more.
You do not have to do this work alone. Get in touch with me so that together, we can address the areas where you've been hurt, enabling you to rediscover your sexuality and reclaim your identity and purpose.
WHAT WE’LL DO TOGETHER
Sexual abuse counseling can help you:
Identify the impact of your sexual harm
The debris of sexual abuse can be both subtle and overt. In my work with clients, we safely work to consider and reckon with how sexual harm has impacted your sense of self, your body, and your ways of relating in the world.
Grieve and tend to your places of sexual harm
Sexual abuse tends to complicate experiences of pleasure, care, connection, and arousal. We will engage these places of loss with grief to honor and tend to the parts of you that hold burden from the harm you have suffered.
Reclaim your sexuality and who you are meant to become
As your sexual harm is engaged, we will identify how you are uniquely meant to be as a sexual being and unburden the wounded parts of you so a process of integration and reclamation can occur as you begin to write a new story.
Common questions about sexual abuse counseling
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There are varying opinions about this among different modalities of treatment but reliving trauma in a way that creates re-traumatization is not a part of the work I offer. We will engage places that hold shame, loss, pain, and contempt with a foot still grounded in the present moment to avoid any potential reliving. While this work can create some distress, it is only engaged when effective resources have been identified to support your process of healing.
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I hear this frequently. We can honor what you do know and follow the proverbial trail of breadcrumbs from there. Memory is buoyant, and if it is needed to heal, we will trust that it will surface when you are ready. We can do a lot of good work even with fragments of memory and/or body sensations.
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There are many factors that can complicate the answer to this question. Some clients enter therapy with a specific piece of work they want to engage that is fairly straight forward. Other clients I work with enter therapy with suspicion, and rightfully so given their experiences of betrayal. Once safety is established, we will engage the particularity of your sexual harm and follow your unique process with gentleness and attunement. The work will be paced to align with your particular goals and mindful of your present capacity.
This is deep work, and it's not always easy. But clients who come ready to engage their story consistently find that what felt permanent begins to shift, and that who they are underneath the trauma is someone worth knowing.