© (2015) By Vicki Polin
(Originally published by The Examiner)
There comes a time in the lives of several adult survivors of child abuse
when they feel the need to do something pro-actively as a way of
transforming their child abuse histories into something positive. It’s
not uncommon for survivors when they reach this stage of healing to
start volunteering time for various non-profit organizations that deal
with sexual assault, write a book about their lives, go back to school
so they can better help others, or even getting involved in the
legislative process in hopes of helping to create better laws to protect
children –– along with advocating for the civil rights of adult
survivors.
There are many pros and cons about going public and speaking out that
really need to be considered. For that reason it is vitally important
for survivors to discuss their thoughts, feelings and plans with
trusted and supportive friends, family members, along with a licensed
psychotherapist who has experience working with adult survivors.
Going public in any venue about ones abuse history in hopes of
helping others, is an extremely noble cause, yet it is also important to
be aware of the risks (which you can read about in the article “Questions to ask yourself before disclosing, confronting or going public“).
Providing testimony at legislative hearings has its own set of
issues, which can be extremely different then other types of public
speaking engagements or even writing a book. Prior to testifying one
may feel that the legislators will hear their words and want to respond
in a positive way. Unfortunately, that is NOT what usually occurs. To
understand the legislative process one must understand that what appears
to be more important then hearing the testimony of survivors, is the
lobbying that occurs both before and after legislative hearings. The
politics of the legislative process involves favors being repaid,
friendships and alliances and campaign contributions.
Over the years I’ve spoken to hundreds of survivors, family members
and others supporters, who provided testimony and shared that they felt
extremely vulnerable, betrayed and devastated when the bills they
testified for failed. Several survivors also shared that after providing
testimony they felt suicidal.
Unfortunately, at most hearings there was no plans made to have
support people available for survivors to debrief with immediately
afterwards, or individuals to follow up with for the weeks or months
afterwards.
Years ago I volunteered as a disaster mental health worker. My job
was to help the disaster workers debrief after each event. Disaster
workers were not allowed to leave the disaster site until after they
debriefed and had a plan in place for them to continue to debrief for
the next 72 hours –– or longer if needed. This sort of plan is
something that should be in place any time a survivor or family member
is expected to share their life experiences as a part of the legislative
process. By doing this, we all can lesson the likelihood that these
brave heroes will be re-victimizing themselves.
If you are a survivor or a family member, perhaps you may want to
rethink providing testimony unless this type of program has been set up
by the organization which has been suggesting you speak out. If there
is no program like this, then perhaps you can help organize one. It
would be helpful for those who want to help debrief survivors along with
others who testify, to learn how to help others by through a disaster
mental health training, a suicide prevention program or rape victim
advocacy training prior to the legislative hearing. It’s important for
there to be follow up with those who testified as long as needed. Once
again each survivor is different and the time in which they may need
support can be from anywhere from 72 hours to a year. The goal is for
everyone to feel as if they did something good, instead of feeling
battered and abused by the legislative process.
